Le Tripādīnītinayana de Murāri Miśra: un texte d'obédience prābhākara ?

• Published in: Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 1994, Vol.81, p.295-326
• Main Author: Gerschheimer, Gerdi
• Format: Review
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Note critique
• ISSN: 0336-1519; 1760-737X

Since about the 7th century, the school of Vedic hermeneutics known as Mīmāṃsa is divided into two major currents: the Bhāṭṭa school, which generally follows the theses of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (7th century) and the Prābhākara school, named after its founder Prabhākara (7th century), which is less known and of which few texts are available. A third school, which is associated with the name of Murāri Miśra, is sometimes added to these two. Besides, there is also a Mīmāṃsaka text called Tripādīnītinayana (12th-14th century?), composed precisely by one Murāri Miśra. Since the end of the 1920s, it has generally been thought that the author of the Tripādīnītinayana (hereinafter called TPNN) is the same as the "founder" of the third school of Mīmāṃsā. In a recently published book, U. Panse attempts to reconstruct the doctrine of the third school on the basis of references to "(Murāri) Miśra" as well as TPNN, the first part of which (dealing with the arthavādādhikaranṇa, Mim. 1.2. adh. 1) she has translated and annotated. This article has been prompted by the reading of U. Panse's book. The author of the article has attempted to show that TPNN is in fact a text of the Prābhākara tradition, and suggests that the conventionally accepted identification of the two Murāri Miśras as the same person should first be put aside so as to have a better understanding of TPNN, as well as a better grasp on the presently available data about the "third school of Mīmāṃsā". A study of TPNN would, first of all, involve re-editing the text and going back to the manuscripts, which are themselves quite corrupt. It would also involve comparing this text with other Mīmāṃsaka texts dealing with the same questions. A quick survey of the first part of TPNN reveals that its approach is typically Prābhākara -which is also confirmed elsewhere -even if one passage, the interpretation of which is open to controversy, allows the possibility that the author of the text disagreed with orthodox Prābhākara doctrine on a key point. Insofar as one does not find the characteristic thesis of the "third school of Mīmāṃsā" in TPNN, the identity between the two Murāri Miśras -the founder of this third school and the author of TPNN - remains perfectly hypothetical. One must determine more precisely the theses which can be attributed to the first of the two, with the help of the references made to them in the philosophical literature. Given our present knowledge, the doctrine cannot be reconstructed on the basis o