Archaeologists have unearthed fragmented copper plates in the basement of a medieval temple near Banavasi, Karnataka. The plates contain a 5th-century text titled 'Mimamsa-Vyakha', which offers a deep philosophical defense of Sabda-pramana (verbal testimony) as a valid source of knowledge. This find is significant for its early use of formal logical structures to validate Vedic authority.
The text focuses on the epistemology of communication, arguing that the reliability of a statement is inherent in the structure of the language itself. Experts believe these fragments will reshape our understanding of the transition from early ritualistic Mimamsa to the more rigorous philosophical systems that dominated the later Classical Age of Indian philosophy.