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Rh had taught before, and which continues to be the cardinal doctrine of Hinduism to this day.

The controversy, or rather the division in opinion, went on for centuries, but orthodoxy prevailed in India in the end. The great Kumarila Bhatta, who lived in the seventh century after Christ, wrote his celebrated Vartika, or commentary on the Purva Mimamsa Sutras, and was the most redoubted champion of Hinduism, as well as the most uncompromising opponent of Buddhism. He not only vindicated the ancient rites of the Vedas, and inveighed against the heterodox opinions of the Buddhists, but he denied them any consideration, even when they happened to agree with the Veda.

The Uttara Mimamsa also had its champion, a man greater than Kumarila, the celebrated Sankaracharya, who wrote in the first half of the ninth century.

The Sutras of the Purva Mimamsa are ascribed to Jaimini, and are divided into twelve lectures and subdivided into sixty chapters. The first lecture treats of the authority of enjoined duty; the varieties of duty, supplemental duties, and the purpose of the performance of duties are treated in the second, third, and fourth lectures. The order of their performance is considered in the fifth, and the qualification for their performance is treated in the sixth. The subject of indirect precept is treated in chapters seven and eight. Inferable changes are discussed in the ninth, and exceptions in the tenth chapter. Efficacy is considered in the eleventh chapter, and the work closes with a discussion of co-ordinate effect in the twelfth chapter.