s all the same produced a supersensuous principle called
_apurva_, which bears fruit at a later time, and thus a sacrifice
leads the offerer to heaven. This theory is really tantamount to
placing magic on a philosophic basis.

Badarayana's sutras, which represent the other branch of the
Mimamsa, show a type of thought more advanced and profound than
Jaimini's. They consist of 555 aphorisms--less than a fifth of
Jaimini's voluminous work--and represent the outcome of considerable
discussion posterior to the Upanishads, for they cite the opinions of
seven other teachers and also refer to Badarayana himself by name.
Hence they may be a compendium of his teaching made by his pupils.
Their date is unknown but Sankara evidently regards them as ancient
and there were several commentators before him.[772] Like most sutras
these aphorisms are often obscure and are hardly intended to be more
than a mnemotechnic summary of the doctrine, to be supplemented by
oral instruction or a commentary. Hence it is difficult to define the
teaching of Badarayana as distinguished from that of the Upanishads
on the one hand, and that of his commentators on the other, or to say
exactly what stage he marks in the development of thought, except that
it is the stage of attempted synthesis.[773] He teaches that Brahman
is the origin of the world and that with him should all knowledge,
religion and effort be concerned. By meditation on him, the soul is
released and somehow associated with him. But it is not clear that we
have any warrant for finding in the sutras (as does Sankara) the
distinction between the higher and lower Brahman, or the doctrine of
the unreality of the world (Maya) or the absolute identity of the
individual soul with Brahman. We are told that the state of the
released soul is non-separation (avibhaga) from Brahman, but this is
variously explained by the commentators according to their views.
Though the sutras are the acknowledged text-book of Vedantism, their
utterances are in practice less important than subsequent explanations
of them. As often happens in India, the comment has overgrown and
superseded the text.

The most important of these commentators is Sankaracarya.[774] Had he
been a European philosopher anxious that his ideas should bear his
name, or a reformer like the Buddha with little respect for antiquity,
he would doubtless have taken his place in history as one of the most
original teachers of Asia. But since his