[Advaita-l] The Mimamsaka way of interpreting the vedas

[Ravisankar Mayavaram]

Probably it is just a matter of terminology.  Each shAka is divided
only into three parts (samhita, brahmaNa, and aaraNyaka). The texts
that are called upanishhads can be found in any one of them.  Even
though sometimes upanishhads  are mentioned as if it is a separate
section of veda-s due to its importance, it is not.  It actually
occurs in in one of the three  parts of vedas which are respectively
samhita-s, brahmaNa-s and aaraNyaka-s.

To give some examples:

* iishaavaasyopanishhad occurs in the samhita portion  of shukla yahur
veda. Hence it is often called as samhitopanishhad or mantropanishhad.
Even though it occurs in samhita portion, it deals with jnAna and not
necessarily used  (or not used) in karma.


* bR^ihadaaraNyaka occurs in aaraNyaka portion  the entire aaraNyaka
is the upanishad;

* kenopanishhad occurs in brahmaNa section of the vedas.

If you look into the book "Vedas" by kAnchi paramAcharya (Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan) he explicitly talks about division into 3 parts in more
than one place.

Sorry for the digression.

Ravi



On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 19:05:03 -0500 (EST), Jaldhar H. Vyas
<jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:
> in many recensions (shakhas)  Each shakha consists of a samhita, and one
> of more brahmanas, aranyakas, and upanishads.  The first two are the basis
> of rituals and other actions (dharma) and are called karmakanda.  They are
> the subject of Purva Mimamsa.  The latter two deal with upasana (meditation)
> and knowledge of Brahman and therefore are called jnanakanda.  This is the
> subject of Vedanta.