Mr. CoLEBROOKE Oil tlic PhUosopliy of the Hindus. 4i55 



tion of civil and religious ordinances. Each case is examined and deter- 

 mined upon general principles ; and from the cases decided the principles 

 may be collected. A well-ordered arrangement of them would constitute 

 the philosophy of the law : and this is, in truth, what has been attempted in 

 the Mimdmd. Jaimini's arrangement, however, is not philosophical ; and I 

 am not acquainted with any elementary work of this school in which a 

 better distriljution has been achieved. I shall not here attempt to supply 

 the defect, but confine the sequel of this essay to a few specimens from 

 divers chapters of Jaimini, after some more remarks on the general scope 

 and manner of the work. 



Instances of the application of reasoning, as taught in the Mimdnsd, to 

 the discussion and determination of juridical questions, may be seen in two 

 treatises on the Law of Inheritance, translated by myself, and as many on 

 Adoption, by a member of this Society, Mr. J. C. C. Sutherland (See Mitdc- 

 shard on Inheritance, 1. 1. 10, and 1. 9. 11, and 2. 1. Si; Jimuta Vdhana, 

 11. 5. 16—19. Datt. Mim. on Adoption, 1. 1. 35—4.1, and 4. 4. 65—66 

 and 6. 6. 27 — 31. Datt. Chand. 1. 1. 24 and 2. 2. 4). 



The subject which most engages attention throughout the Mimdnsd, 

 recurring at every turn, is the invisible or spiritual operation of an act of 

 merit. The action ceases, yet the consequence does not immediately ensue. 

 A virtue meantime subsists, unseen, but efficacious to connect the conse- 

 quence with its past'and remote cause, and to bring about at a distant period, 

 or in another world, the relative effect. 



That unseen virtue is termed apurva, being a relation superinduced, not 

 before possessed. 



Sacrifice (i/dga), which, among meritorious works, is the act of religion 

 most inculcated by the vedas, and consequently most discussed in the prior 

 Mimdnsd, consists in parting with a thing that it may belong to a deity, 

 whom it is intended to propitiate.* Being cast into the fire for that purpose, 

 it is a burnt offering Qihmd). Four sorts are distinguished : a simple obla- 

 tion (tshti), the immolation of a victim (pasu), the presenting of ex- 

 pressed juice of the soma plant (asclepias acida), and the burnt-offering above- 

 mentioned.t The object of certain rites is some definite temporal advan- 

 tage ; of others, benefit in another world. Three ceremonies, in particular. 



» Mim.i.i.\2. \ lO.i.i. I. 



Vol.. I. 3 O 



