MIMANSA
286
31IXARD
ami Crit. Miscellanies ; Bayne, Contemporary Rev. Aug. 1873; Brit. Qu. Rev.3wa.\hl\. p. 115; July, 1872, \\ \il sq.; July, 1871, p. HI sq.; I'nsb. Qu. Rev. April, 1872, art. X ; Catholic U'orlJ, Feb. 1, 1873. Those who desire to know how the English Homer is regarded by a na- tion whose taste and habits of thouglit ditter most widely from the Anglo-Saxon race, may consult the article "Milton" in the Jiioijraphie Unirerstlle, from the pen of the justly-celebrated French critic Villemain. He admits that Milton's picture of our first parents in Eden surpasses, in graceful and touching simplicity, anything to be found in the creations of any other poet, ancient or modern, and that the human imagination has pro- duced nothing more grand or more sublime than some portions oi Paradise Lost. Compare also the lately is- sued work on the History of English Literature by Taine (Lond. and N, Y. 1872, 2 vols. 8 vo) ; Geoff roy. Etudes sur les Pamphlets Politiques et Reliyieux de Milton (Paris, 1848), and Revue Chretienne, 18G9, p. 19 sq. A revised edition of INIilton's poetical trorks is now preparing un- der the editorship of Prof. JIasson, the able biographer of Milton, and a multifarious worker. There can be no doubt that this forthcoming portion of Milton's works will hereafter be the standard edition of the poetical •writings of Jolin Milton. (( i. F. H.)
Mimansa (from the Sanscrit man, to investigate; licncc. literally, Iki-i .-tliijdlidu) is the coUoctive name of two of the six divisions of orthodox Hindu philoso))hy. See HiNDiisM. These two divisions are respectively distinguisiied as PtnTa-mimunsd and Uttara-mimdnsd, the latter being more commonly called Veddnta (q. v.), while the former is brieHy styled Mimdnsd. Kative writers rank the Mimansa with the five other philosoph- ical systems; but the term philosophy — as understood in a European sense — can scarcely be applied to it, as it is neither concerned with the nature of the absolute or of the human mind, nor with the various categories of ex- istence in general — topics wMiich are dealt with more or less by the other five philosophies. The object of the Mtmansa is in reality simply to lay down a correct in- terpretation of such Vedic passages as refer to the Brah- minic ritnal, to solve doubts wherever tlic\^ may exist on matters concerning sacrificial acts, and to reconcile discrepancies — according to the Mimansa always ap- parent only— of Vedic texts.
The foundation of this system is therefore preceded by a codification of the three principal Vedas [the fourth Veda, the '• Atharvan," never attained in India the high consideration paid to the others, and is not universally accepted as a A'eda (q. v.)]— the Rik, Black -Yajus, and Saman — and by the existence of schools and theories which, by their different interpretations of the Vedic rites, had bcgim to endanger, or, in reality, had endangered a correct, or at least authoritative un- derstanding of the Vedic texts. It is the method, how- ever, adopted by the Mimansa which imparted to it a higher character than that of a mere commentary, and allowed it to be looked upon as a philosophy; for, in the first place, the topics ex))laiiied do not follow the ■ order in which they occur in the Vedic writings, espe- cially in the Brahminic portion of the Vedas (q. v.); they are arranged according to certain categories, such as authoritativeness, indirect precept, concurrent efli- cacy, co-ordinate effect, etc. ; and, secondly, each topic or case is discussed according to a regular scheme, wiiieh comprises the |iroiKisition of the sul)ject- matter, the doubt or question arising ujion \\,{]w prima facie or wrong argument applied to it, the correct argimient in refutation of the latter, and the conclusion ilevolving from it. Some suiijects treated of in the ^limansfi, in- cidentally, as it were, and merely for the sake of argu- ment, belong likewise rather to the sidiere of philo- sophic thought than to that of commcntatorinl criticism — such, for instance, as the association of articidate sound with sense, the similarity of words in different languages, the insjiiration or eternity of the Veda, the invisible or spiritual operation of ])ious acts, etc.
! The reputed founder of this system is Jaimini — of unknown date — who taught it in twelve books, each
i subdivided into four chapters, except the third, sixth,
; and tenth books, which contain eight chapters each;
I the chapters, again, are divided into sections, generally comprising several Siitras or aphorisms, but sometimes
! only one. The extant commentary on this obscure work is the Bhdshya of Sabara-swfimin, which was crit- ically annotated by the great Slimansa authority, Kii- marila-swamin. Out of these works, which, in their turn, (piote several others, apparently lost, has arisen a
I great number of other writings, explaining and eluci- dating their predecessors. The liest compendium, among these modern works, is the Jaimiiiiya-nydya-mdld-vis- tu7-a,hy the celebrated Madhaviicharva (q.v.). — Cham- bers, Cyclop, s. v. See Mullens, The Reliyious A spects of Hindu Philosophy (Lond. 18G(I) ; tlie Kev. K. :M. Ban- erjew, Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy (Lond. 18t;i) ; Chunder Dutt, Essay on the Vedanta (Calcutta, 1854); Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums, i,205; Clarke, Ten Great Religions, p. IIG sq.
Mina (in Greek i^iva, A.V. " pound"), a weight and coin which, according to the Attic standard, was equiv- alent to 100 drarlnixe ( Plutarch, Solon, xvi; Pliny, xxi, 109) or IJoman dinarii, i. e. (estimating the average value at the time of Christ) about $1G. It is the sum named in the parable of LidvC xix, 13 .sq., where the amount of 100 mince is therefirre some $1G00. On tlie other hand, the mina mentioned in 1 Mace, xiv, 24 (comp. XV, 18) is a weight, and (as being originally equivalent to the Heb. shekel) it may be reckoned at 8220 Paris grains {\M)ck\\, Metj-ol.Untersuch. p. 124); and the sum of 1000 mime of gold would then amount to about $1G,910. See Money.