TOPIC REVIEW: MODERN VEDIC HERMENEUTICS

Abstract

This topic review focuses on the elements of the Purvamimansa interpretative school of India that have been adopted by ISKCON, a contemporary or modern Vaishnava institution that for the exegesis of classics on Indian religious philosophy such as the Srimad Bhagavatam uses the hermeneutic system of Vedic revealed/sacred texts. In the following pages, the origin and characteristics of Mimansa school are delineated and it is argued that sabda (authoritative testimony) is the core of both Vaishnava epistemology and the exegesis of sacred texts. This work emphasizes that, for Vaishnavism, epistemology and hermeneutics are inseparable and mutually dependent and argues that this contemporary appropriation of an ancient system of interpretation can be considered a contemporary or Modern Vedic Hermeneutics.