What's in a list? A rule of interpretation for Hindu Dharma offered in response to Maria Hibbets (On the use of nonsystematic lists as specialized sources for Indian "Purva Mimamsa" principles of law and ethics)

The study of South Asian ethics presents a variety of problems for the comp arative ethicist. This response focuses on one such problem relating to Hin duism: the pervasive use of nonsystematic lists such as a source of ethical injunctions and guidelines. The author demonstrates how an indigenous herm eneutic may unpack a list that contains the gift of fearlessness among othe r gifts. The source of this interpretation is Purva Mimamsa, an ancient Ind ian school of philosophy that specialized in language and the application o f sacrificial logic to law and ethics. The same principles that allowed rit ual specialists to sort out a huge array of rules into proper injunctions a lso allow us to make sense of ethical principles embodied in puzzling lists of concrete items.