---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: niyoga
title: Niyoga
iast: Niyoga
devanagari: नियोग
description: 'In the Prābhākara school, the binding directive or ought that is the very content of a Vedic injunction, obeyed as duty for its own sake; NOT a result-oriented incentive, NOT a request or wish, NOT a psychological compulsion.'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Bṛhatī on Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 2.1.1
tags:
- niyoga
- mimamsa
- prabhakara
- deontology
not:
- term: 'a result-oriented incentive'
  why: 'This is the crux against the Bhāṭṭas. For Prabhākara the injunction does not primarily promise a result; it binds. One acts because one is enjoined (the sense of ought is itself the motive), not to secure a fruit. Reading niyoga as an incentive collapses the school''''s duty-for-its-own-sake ethics into Bhāṭṭa consequentialism.'
  instead: 'Render niyoga as the binding directive obeyed as duty, not an incentive toward a reward.'
- term: 'a request or wish'
  why: 'A request can be declined and a wish carries no obligation; niyoga binds the qualified agent categorically.'
- term: 'a psychological compulsion'
  why: 'Niyoga is a normative bond conveyed by the injunctive word, not a felt inner compulsion.'
related:
- /concepts/karya.md
- /concepts/vidhi.md
- /concepts/adhikara.md
- /concepts/bhavana.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Niyoga -- नियोग

**Not:** a result-incentive, a request or wish, psychological compulsion

## What It Actually Means

Prabhākara''s analysis makes the ought primary. The meaning of vidhi is niyoga, a directive that binds; correlatively the agent grasps a kārya, a to-be-done (see karya), and acts from the recognition of being bound, not from desire for a fruit. This yields the famous Prābhākara ethics: duty performed for duty''s sake, with the sense of obligation as the sufficient motive. It is the sharpest Indian articulation of deontology, and it is why the Bhāṭṭa/Prābhākara split matters beyond ritual: it is a disagreement about what obligation itself is.

## School Divergence (Bhāṭṭa / Prābhākara)

This concept is the Prābhākara pole. Its Bhāṭṭa counterpart is bhāvanā together with apūrva, where the injunction is read as producing a result rather than simply binding.

## Audience Metaphor

A lifeguard who swims out because "someone is drowning and it is mine to act" is moved by the bindingness of the situation, not by a reward. Niyoga is that bindingness made the very meaning of the command: you act because it is enjoined, full stop.

## Citations

1. Prabhākara, Bṛhatī on the injunctive -- see [references/brhati.md](../references/brhati.md)
2. Contrast in Kumārila, Ślokavārttika -- see [references/slokavarttika.md](../references/slokavarttika.md)
