ABSTRACT
This chapter develops Jaimini’s explication of the authority of the Veda in light of the discussion on ritual and rationality, particularly by looking at the limitations of reductionist approaches within the study of ritual. It claims that a reductionist enquiry in the human sciences, which includes the modern invention of ‘ritual’, is propelled by a Western universal rationality whose presuppositions are often uncritically borrowed from the scientific methods of enquiry. This claim is used to argue the importance of identifying tradition-constituted rationalities. It is then argued that, while Jaimini does not explicitly articulate a concept of traditionary rationality, he insisted on the intelligibility of the Vedic practice of sacrifice through a re-formulation of the authority of the Veda as intrinsically infallible disclosed structures akin to a ‘tradition-internal reasoning’ or a rationality of tradition. Jaimini’s demonstration of the authority of the Veda not only discloses the mechanisms that constitute the unbroken tradition of Vedic practice, but also presents a form of tradition-constituted rationality which challenges the universalist-relativist presuppositions upon which the contentions concerning rationalities are often premised. This opens the pathway for a dialogical approach whose form of enquiry is able to accommodate discussions that concern the complexities of tradition-internal reasoning and tradition-constituted subjectivities.
