Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c32.4

c32.4

There are several Sacrifices in connection with which the Veda does not specifically prescribe all the necessary details, but declares that ‘such and such a Sacrifice shall be performed in the manner of such and such another Sacrifice’; for instance, with regard to the Iṣu-Sacrifice, after having declared its peculiar features, the Vedic text goes on to declare that ‘the rest is like the Shyēna-Sacrifice’. In such cases, the Shyēna-Sacrifice would be called the *Prakṛti*, Archetype, and the *Iṣu-Sacrifice*, the corresponding *Vikṛti*, Ectype. The *Transference*, then, of the details of the Archetype to the Ectype is what is called *Atideśa*, which has been defined as ‘that process whereby a detail becomes extended in its application from the Primary act to other acts cognate to it’. (Bhā. Trs. p. 1239). The *Prakaraṇapañchikā* (p. 227) has defined it as ‘that through which the Ectype becomes connected with the details of the Archetypal Sacrifice’, or ‘the Extension of the details of one Sacrifice to another, when there is no incongruity in such extension’.