ABSTRACT
One of Wilhelm Halbfass's most important contributions in Tradition and Reflection is the disclosure of the ethical dimension of the thought of the great Mīmāṃsā thinker Kumārilabhaṭṭa. While previous studies of Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā have focussed on epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of language, Halbfass opens up a new area of investigation, with his essay “Vedic Apologetics, Ritual Killing, and the Foundations of Ethics,” 1 by discussing Kumārila's views on the sources of our knowledge of right and wrong. This constitutes a welcome and appropriate correction; for, certainly, ethics — more precisely, dharma — was the matter of greatest significance for Kumārila, that which his writings are ultimately dedicated to explicating and defending. All other aspects of his system can be seen as subordinate to this topic. Mīmāṃsā is, after all, as the first sūtra of the Mīmāṃsāsūtras announces, an “inquiry into dharm”1 (dharmajijñsā).
