---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: namadheya
title: Nāmadheya
iast: Nāmadheya
devanagari: नामधेय
description: 'A Vedic word functioning as the mere name of a rite rather than as an injunction or a separate directive; a parsing category that blocks a naming-word from being misread as enjoining an extra act; NOT a magical true-name, NOT an arbitrary label, NOT a definition.'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 1.4.1
tags:
- namadheya
- mimamsa
- naming
- hermeneutics
not:
- term: 'a magical or essential true-name'
  why: 'Nāmadheya is a technical parsing category, not a doctrine that names hold power over what they name. It marks that a given word only names a rite and does not enjoin an extra act or quality.'
  instead: 'Render nāmadheya as a word functioning as the name of a rite, not a power-bearing true-name.'
- term: 'an arbitrary label of no consequence'
  why: 'Identifying a word as nāmadheya is consequential: it blocks a mis-parse that would otherwise multiply rites or duties, so the category does real interpretive work even though the word only names.'
- term: 'a definition or description'
  why: 'A nāmadheya names; it does not define or describe the rite''''s nature.'
related:
- /concepts/vidhi.md
- /concepts/arthavada.md
- /concepts/viniyoga.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Nāmadheya -- नामधेय

**Not:** a magical true-name, an arbitrary label, a definition

## What It Actually Means

Interpretation must decide, of a given Vedic word, what job it does: does it enjoin (vidhi), praise (arthavāda), or merely name (nāmadheya)? Mīmāṃsā develops rules, notably a preference for taking a word as a name over positing a second injunction (to avoid vākya-bheda, splitting one sentence into two), so that, for example, "he sacrifices with the udbhid" is read as naming a rite, not as enjoining a separate udbhid substance. Nāmadheya thus guards the economy of injunctions: one does not manufacture new duties out of what is only a name.

## Audience Metaphor

A dish called "Sunday roast" is named, not instructed; reading the name as a command to do something extra called "Sunday" would be a parsing error. Nāmadheya is Mīmāṃsā''s guard against exactly that error in the Veda: this word only names the rite, so do not invent a duty from it.

## Citations

1. Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 1.4 (the nāmadheya adhikaraṇas) -- see [references/mimamsa-sutra.md](../references/mimamsa-sutra.md)
2. Artha-saṃgraha on naming versus injunction -- see [references/artha-samgraha.md](../references/artha-samgraha.md)
