[Advaita-l] Mimamsa Question: karmabheda in SAkAs (Jaimini Sutra 2.4.8 )

[Sundaresan, Vidyasankar (GE Infra, Water)]

>a) Is it the case that there exists an a-priori set 
>of polymorphic forms of agnihotra (for example),
>and the specific recension just captures what is
>sufficient to it? Or
>b) Is it the case that there exists a-priori form(s) 
>of agnihotra that are sufficient archetypes where
>rishi/acharya initiated variants in the recessions are
>acceptable? If so, I assume that apaurusheyatva
>automatically also extends to such prayoga as
>well; then is this case really different from the
>previous case?

Not that the following comments answer your questions exactly,
but I would like to emphasize that the mImAMsA school is very
particular about language usage. The typical injunction about
agnihotra or other sacrificial acts is a sentence of the form:

svargakAmo (jyotishTomena yajeta) / (agnihotraM juhuyAt) /
(darSapUrNamAsAbhyAM yajeta).

There is no reference that says kAThakAgnihotraM juhuyAt
or kAThaka-darSapUrNamAsAbhyAM yajeta. Thus, for the
mImAMsA thinker, the agnihotra is one act only, of which the
kAThakAgnihotra is the kind described in the kAThaka SAkhA.
The singular number in agnihotraM and the dual number in
darSapUrNamAsAbhyAM are important, and indicate that
there is only one agnihotra, one darSa and one pUrNamAsa
ritual. It may be practically impossible to describe one archetype
for each, but this does not mean that there is none.

It is unclear to me what you intend by apaurusheyatva extending
to the prayoga. The quality of apaurusheyatva belongs to the text,
not to the act described in the text, inasmuch as each act is to be
done by a specific person. The Sruti text about one variant of
agnihotra is as apaurusheya as the one about another variant, but
neither the agnihotra act itself nor the specifics of its variants can
be described as apaurusheya.

Regarding the internal consistency within each recension, that
would have to be on a case-to-case basis. It is hard to state a
general rule. Given the well-acknowledged fact that many
SAkhA-s have been lost over time, it may well be impossible
to come up with a complete set by collecting across recensions.

Regards,
Vidyasankar