Jaimini

Jaimini founded Mimamsa, the school devoted to interpreting the ritual and ethical commands of the Vedas. Its concern looks narrow and turns out to be deep: what gives an instruction its authority, how words carry meaning, and why one ought to do what duty demands even when no reward is visible. To defend the eternal authority of scripture, the Mimamsakas developed sharp theories of language, evidence, and obligation that influenced every later Indian thinker. They argued, strikingly, that duty can be its own end, performed because it is right rather than for its fruits.