---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: jati
title: Jāti (Mīmāṃsā)
iast: Jāti
devanagari: जाति
description: 'The real universal, the eternal generic property inhering in each of its particulars, which grounds the fixed word-meaning relation; Mīmāṃsā realism about kinds; NOT a mental concept, NOT a class understood as its collection, NOT a nominal label.'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Ślokavārttika, Ākṛtivāda
tags:
- jati
- mimamsa
- universal
- realism
not:
- term: 'a concept or mental abstraction'
  why: 'For Mīmāṃsā the universal is real and mind-independent, not a construct of thought. It is what makes many particulars genuinely one in kind and what a general word eternally denotes; treating it as a mere concept flattens the school''''s realism.'
  instead: 'Render jāti as a real, mind-independent universal inhering in its particulars, not a mental concept.'
- term: 'a class understood as the collection of its members'
  why: 'A universal is not the set of individuals; it is the single repeatable property present in each, ontologically prior to any collection.'
- term: 'a nominal label (nominalism)'
  why: 'Mīmāṃsā explicitly rejects the Buddhist apoha view that generality is only a name or an exclusion; the universal is a positive real.'
related:
- /concepts/sabda-nityata.md
- /concepts/autpattika.md
- /concepts/atman.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Jāti (Mīmāṃsā) -- जाति

**Not:** a mental concept, a class-as-collection, a nominal label

## What It Actually Means

Why does the word "cow" mean the same eternally (see sabda-nityata, autpattika)? Because it denotes a real universal, gotva or cowness, which is one, eternal, and present in every cow. Mīmāṃsā, like Nyāya, is realist about such universals and argues against the Buddhist apoha theory that generality is mere exclusion-by-name. The realism about jāti undergirds the realism about language: eternal words denote eternal universals, part of why the Veda''s meanings are stable and authorless. Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika also treats sāmānya as a real universal; the treatments are kin, both realist.

## Audience Metaphor

Middle C is one pitch really present in every instrument that sounds it, not a name we paste on similar noises. Jāti is that: cowness as a real, single note sounding identically in every cow, which is why one eternal word can name them all.

## Citations

1. Kumārila, Ślokavārttika, the Ākṛtivāda on the universal -- see [references/slokavarttika.md](../references/slokavarttika.md)
2. Cross-bundle: sāmānya in nyaya-vaisheshika v0.9, the kindred realist treatment of universals
