The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

99 - The Philosophical Systems
commented upon the Sābara Bhāṣya 61 itself, and the Pāṇini translator
of the Pūrva Mīmāṁsa convicts Rāmānuja of error in having treated
ṣa was
the first commentator on the Mīmāṁsa, and offers the remark in a
How unfounded these views are seems clear from the extracts above.
For our present purpose it is clear that the Maṇimēkhalai refers to the
Mīmāṁsa Śāstra as one and accepts the six pramāṇas as of Jaimini as
current at the time, thus clearly indicating a period before the Śābara
Bhāṣya. Vyāsa propounded the ten pramāṇas ṭi eight and
Jaimini six. These are under reference in the Śābara Bhāṣya and the
six are ascribed by mistake to Śabarasvāmin instead of to Jaimini in
61 P. 370. That Jaimini’s Mīmāṁsa Sūtras (which are with us the foundations
of Mīmāṁsa) are only a comprehensive and systematic compilation of one
school is evident from the references he gives to the views in different
matters of other preceding writers who dealt with the subject. These works
are not available now, and we cannot say how much of what Jaimini has
written is his original work and how much of it borrowed. But it may be
said with some degree of confidence that it was deemed so masterly a work
at least of one school that it has survived all other attempts that were made
before him. Jaimini's Mīmāṁsa Sūtras were probably written about 200
B.C. and are now the groundwork of the Mīmāṁsa system. Commentaries
Nyāyaratnākara, verse 10 of Ślokavārttika), Bhavadāsa (Pratijñāsūtra 63),
Hari and Upavarṣa (mentioned in Śāstradīpikā). It is probable that at least
some of these preceded Śābara, the writer of the famous commentaries
known as the Śābara-bhāṣya. It is difficult to say anything about the time in
which he flourished. Dr. Ganganath Jha would have him about 57 B.C. on
the evidence of a current verse which speaks of king Vikramāditya as
being the son of Śabarasvāmin by a Kṣatriya wife. This Bhāṣya of Śābara is
the basis of the later Mīmāṁsa works. It was commented upon by an
unknown person alluded to as Vārttikakāra by Prabhākara and merely
referred to as ‘Yathāhuḥ’ (as they say) by Kumārila. Dr. Ganganath Jha
-bhāṣya was based
upon the work of this Vārttikakāra.