Mīmāṃsā (मीमांसा), a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" (compare Greek ἱστορία), is the name of an astika ("orthodox") school of Hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas. The nature of dharma is not accessible to reason or observation, and must be inferred from the authority of the revelation contained in the Vedas, which are considered eternal, authorless (apaurusheyatva), and infallible. The school of Mimamsa consists of both atheistic and theistic doctrines and is not deeply considered in the existence of God, rather in the character of dharma.

Mimamsa strongly concerned with textual exegesis, and consequently gave rise to the study of philology and the philosophy of language. Its notion of shabda "speech" as indivisible unity of sound and meaning (signifier and signified) is due to Bhartrhari (ca. 5th century CE).

Mimamsa is also known as Pūrva Mīmāṃsā ("prior" inquiry, also Karma-Mīmāṃsā), in contrast to Uttara Mīmāṃsā ("posterior" inquiry, also Brahma-Mīmāṃsā) is the opposing school of Vedanta. This division is based on the notion of a dichotomy of the Vedic texts into a karmakāṇḍa, the department of the Veda treating of sacrificial rites (Samhitas and Brahmanas), and the jñānakāṇḍa dealing with the knowledge of Brahman (the Upanishads).

Ganapathi Venkatrama Iyer (known as G. V. Iyer) (1917 - December 21, 2003) was a well known Indian film director and actor. He was nicknamed "Kannada Bheeshma", and was the only person who made movies in Sanskrit, Adi Shankaracharya (1983) and which won four National Film Award, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Audiography.. His films were well-known for their spiritual themes. He was born in 1917 in Nanjanagud in Mysore district of Karnataka state in South India. His most critically acclaimed film was Bhagavad Gita (1993) (1993), which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film and was nominated for Best Film at the Bogotá Film Festival.

He started his career at the age of eight when he joined the Gubbi Veeranna theatre group. His first role as an actor in cinema was in the film Radharamana. Besides this he acted in a number of other movies such as Mahakavi Kalidasa, Sodhari, Hemavati, Hari Bhaktha and Bedara Kannapa.

He soon started directing his own movies. The movie Hamsageethe (music by Dr. Balamuralikrishna, B. V. Karanth and T.G. Lingappa) was extremely well received and made him famous. Iyer wrote scripts, lyrics and produced and directed many commercial Kannada movies. Iyer’s biggest effort was Ranadheera Kanteerava. He continued making commercial movies until 1970.