History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.188

v7.c93.188

3 *The individual soul*. The P. M. S. does not expressly affirm the existence of the soul in any sūtra Śaṅkarācārya on V S III. 3. 53 refers to this fact, states that Śabara, the Bhāṣyakāra, propounded the existence of the soul and that the venerable Upavarṣa refrained from going into that question in his exposition of the Pūrvamīmāṁsā with the remark that he would expound it when dealing with Śārīraka (i e the Vedānta-sūtra). It was probably due to this fact of the absence of a statement about the soul that the Pūrvamīmāṁsā was interpreted by some as favouring atheism Kumārila complains that the Mīmāṁsā, though not really atheistic, was put forward as Lokāyata (atheistic)¹⁹⁵⁵ by some and that therefore he endeavours (in the it is so, the *phala* (the reward) is conferred by the sacrifice and not by the deities (Indra and Agni in this case) and the words ‘Indra¹⁹⁶⁰ and Agni confer progeny on the sacrificer’ are purely laudatory. P. M. S. IX. 1. 6–10 are very important in this connection. Śabara quotes Vedic passages like Ṛg. X. 47. 1, III. 30. 5, VIII. 17. 8 (where Indra's right hand, fist, neck, stomach and arms are mentioned), Ṛg I. 95 10, VIII. 77. 4 (where Indra is said to have put in his stomach all foods and to have drunk thirty vessels full of soma), Ṛg. VIII. 32. 22 and X. 89. 10 where Indra is said to be lord of the world, of heaven and earth, waters and mountains and then remarks that these are all *arthavādas*, though at first sight they appear to postulate that Vedic deities have bodies, eat and drink. The Śāstradīpikā advances the argument that if the devatā had a body, ate, drank and was pleased, devatā will be *anitya* (ephemeral) and could not in that case be treated of in the Veda that is eternal. He further asserts that men of limited intelligence not knowing the real import of the Vedic passages may hold wrong opinions. Śabara notes (on X. 4. 23) that there are various opinions as to who the Devatās are to whom either a hymn (*sūkta*) is addressed (as Ṛg. I. 94) or to whom ‘havis’ is directed by the Veda to be offered as in ‘one should offer to Agni an offering cooked on eight potsherds’; that the devatā becomes connected with the sacrifice not in its own nature but by the word used with reference to an offering and that where the Veda directs an offering to be made to Agni, one cannot use a synonym for Agni such as ‘Śuci, Pāvaka, Dhūmaketu, Kṛśānu, Vaiśvānara or Śāṇḍilya. Thus Devatā is a matter of words, as admitted by¹⁹⁶¹