the Sa/m/hitâs and Brâhma/n/as, and the Bhâshyas ascribed to Sa@nkara on
the chief Upanishads. But these commentaries do not by themselves
conduce to a full comprehension of the contents of the sacred texts,
since they confine themselves to explaining the meaning of each detached
passage without investigating its relation to other passages, and the
whole of which they form part; considerations of the latter kind are at
any rate introduced occasionally only. The task of taking a
comprehensive view of the contents of the Vedic writings as a whole, of
systematising what they present in an unsystematical form, of showing
the mutual co-ordination or subordination of single passages and
sections, and of reconciling contradictions--which, according to the
view of the orthodox commentators, can be apparent only--is allotted to
a separate sâstra or body of doctrine which is termed Mîmâ/m/sâ, i.e.
the investigation or enquiry [Greek: kat ezochaen], viz. the enquiry
into the connected meaning of the sacred texts.

Of this Mîmâ/m/sâ two branches have to be distinguished, the so-called
earlier (pûrva) Mîmâ/m/sâ, and the later (uttara) Mîmâ/m/sâ. The former
undertakes to systematise the karmakâ/nd/a, i.e. that entire portion of
the Veda which is concerned with action, pre-eminently sacrificial
action, and which comprises the Sa/m/hitâs and the Brâhma/n/as exclusive
of the Âra/n/yaka portions; the latter performs the same service with
regard to the so-called j/ñ/ânaka/nd/a, i.e. that part of the Vedic
writings which includes the Âra/n/yaka portions of the Brâhma/n/as, and
a number of detached treatises called Upanishads. Its subject is not
action but knowledge, viz. the knowledge of Brahman.

At what period these two /s/âstras first assumed a definite form, we are
unable to ascertain. Discussions of the nature of those which constitute
the subject-matter of the Pûrva Mîmâ/m/sâ must have arisen at a very