---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: bhavana
title: Bhāvanā
iast: Bhāvanā
devanagari: भावना
description: 'The productive urging toward a result that the Bhāṭṭa school takes to be the core meaning of a Vedic injunction, analysed by its object, instrument, and procedure; NOT manifestation in the wish-fulfilment sense, NOT emotion, NOT Buddhist meditative cultivation.'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Ślokavārttika, Bhāvanādhikaraṇa
tags:
- bhavana
- mimamsa
- injunction
- bhatta
not:
- term: 'manifestation (willing an outcome into being)'
  why: 'The popular ''''manifestation'''' sense imports mind-over-matter wish-fulfilment. Bhāvanā is a technical analysis of what an injunctive sentence means: the efficient urging toward an act-to-be-accomplished, with its object, instrument, and method. It is a theory of imperative meaning, not a self-help practice.'
  instead: 'Render bhāvanā as the injunction''''s productive urging toward a result, analysed by its object, instrument, and procedure, not as manifestation.'
- term: 'emotion or feeling'
  why: 'Bhāvanā is not an affect. Kumārila distinguishes śābdī bhāvanā, the urging carried by the injunctive suffix, from ārthī bhāvanā, the agent''''s resulting effort; both are force-contents of the injunction, not moods.'
- term: 'Buddhist meditative cultivation'
  why: 'Same Sanskrit word, different technical object. Buddhist bhāvanā is meditative development; Mīmāṃsā bhāvanā is the productive force of an injunction. A cross-tradition false friend.'
related:
- /concepts/vidhi.md
- /concepts/apurva.md
- /concepts/niyoga.md
- /concepts/codana.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Bhāvanā -- भावना

**Not:** manifestation, emotion, Buddhist meditation

## What It Actually Means

For the Bhāṭṭas the heart of an injunction like "one should sacrifice" is a bhāvanā, a bringing-about. Kumārila analyses it into two: śābdī bhāvanā (the urging carried by the injunctive suffix itself) and ārthī bhāvanā (the agent''s own activity that the urging sets in motion). Each bhāvanā has three questions built in: what is to be brought about (sādhya), by what means (sādhana), and how (itikartavyatā). This is one of the earliest systematic analyses of imperative meaning anywhere.

## School Divergence (Bhāṭṭa / Prābhākara)

The Bhāṭṭa centres the injunction on bhāvanā, on result-production. The Prābhākara centres it on niyoga and kārya, on the binding to-be-done, duty rather than production. The two accounts of what an injunction means run parallel to their two accounts of what obligation is.

## Audience Metaphor

An injunction, for the Bhāṭṭa, works like a coach''s "score!": not a description and not a feeling, but a structured urging that packs in what to achieve, by what means, and how. Bhāvanā names that packed, productive push inside the command.

## Citations

1. Kumārila, Ślokavārttika and Tantravārttika on bhāvanā -- see [references/slokavarttika.md](../references/slokavarttika.md) and [references/tantravarttika.md](../references/tantravarttika.md)
2. Śabara-Bhāṣya on the injunctive -- see [references/sabara-bhashya.md](../references/sabara-bhashya.md)
