HINDU ENCYCLOPEDIA

सनातन धर्म भूमिका

Meaning of "Karmakanda>"

Word

Karmakanda

Sanskrit

कर्मकाण्ड

IAST

karmakāṇḍa

In General

According to traditionalists, the Brahmanas and Samhitas together form the Karmakanda and it is entirely different from Jnanakanda taught by Aranyaka and Upanishads. But in reality, the Samhitaa are the most auspicious basic text and the other three parts of Veda,namely, the Brahmana, Aranyaka and Upanishads are different types of interpretation on the main texts of Samhita.

The traditional priests considered the ritualistic practice of Samhita as the most relevant religious duties owing to the affinities towards their work and earnings. They advocated it as necessary religious duty or karma and thus called the method as Karmakanda. The ritualistic practices have become very popular during Puranic period where the priests got patrons from very affluent kingdoms. Yaga as a social event become popular during this period. The Karma Mimamsa aphorism of Jaimini gave the priest a strong foundation to argue and it was so appealing that people in large treated even Samhitas as preliminaries to Brahmans. But, Jaimini in fact does not refer to a mechanical, formal, external ritualistic act but an inner spiritual discourse symbolically portrayed. In Sankaradigvijaya we can find Sankara is fighting more with the traditional class of priest than with the Buddhist.

Veda

Veda do not discriminate Karma Marga and Jnana Marga as different. Veda promote internal discipline and inner yajna than the bahaya yajna (Yaga with cereals and other materials)

Purana

Purana only reinforced the discriminatory concept of Karmakanda concept and considered Jnanamarga as a sanyasin sect. But BG propagated a middle path called Karma Sanyasa or Nishkama Karma; doing karma without any desire for fruit.

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Word Sanskrit IAST In General Veda Purana