Today we will look at the form मीमांसकाः mNp from सुभाषितरत्नभाण्डागारम्।

मीमांसकाः कतिचिदत्र मिलन्ति वेदप्रामाण्यसाधनकृतोऽपि न तेऽभिवन्द्याः ।
उद्घोषितोऽप्युपनिषद्भिरशेषशेषी ब्रह्मैव नाभ्युपगतः पुरुषोत्तमो यैः ॥

Translation – A few Mīmāṃsakas are assembled here. Even though they have made the authority of the Vedas as their means, they are not worthy of respect because the Supreme Being, Brahma itself – Who remains after everything else – has not been realized by them, even though He has been proclaimed by the Upaniṣads.

The प्रातिपदिकम् ‘मीमांसक’ used in the verse is derived as follows –
मीमांसामधीते वेद वा = मीमांसकः – a person who studies or knows Mīmāṃsā (a system of philosophy)
In the verse, the विवक्षा is प्रथमा-बहुवचनम्। Hence the form is मीमांसकाः।

(1) मीमांसा अम् + वुन् । By 4-2-61 क्रमादिभ्यो वुन् – To denote a person who studies or knows that (subject matter), the तद्धित: affix ‘वुन्’ may be optionally applied following a syntactically related पदम् in which the सन्धिः operations have been performed, provided the पदम् ends in the second case affix and has as its base ‘क्रम’ etc (listed in the क्रमादि-गण:) which denotes that (subject matter).
Note: The affix ‘वुन्’ prescribed by the सूत्रम् 4-2-61 is a अपवादः to the affix ‘अण्’ prescribed by 4-2-59 तदधीते तद्वेद।

(2) मीमांसा अम् + वु । अनुबन्ध-लोपः by 1-3-3 हलन्त्यम्, 1-3-9 तस्य लोपः ।

Note: ‘मीमांसा अम् + वु’ gets the designation प्रातिपदिकम्‌ by 1-2-46 कृत्तद्धितसमासाश्च। This allows 2-4-71 सुपो धातुप्रातिपदिकयोः to apply in the next step.

(3) मीमांसा + वु । By 2-4-71 सुपो धातुप्रातिपदिकयोः – A सुँप् affix takes a लुक् elision when it is a part of a धातुः or a प्रातिपदिकम्।

(4) मीमांसा + अक । By 7-1-1 युवोरनाकौ – The affixes ‘यु’ and ‘वु’ are substituted respectively by ‘अन’ and ‘अक’। As per 1-1-55 अनेकाल्शित्सर्वस्य the entire affix ‘वु’ is replaced by ‘अक’।

Note: The अङ्गम् ‘मीमांसा’ gets the भ-सञ्ज्ञा by 1-4-18 यचि भम् which allows 6-4-148 यस्येति च to apply in the next step.

(5) मीमांस् + अक । By 6-4-148 यस्येति च – When the letter ‘ई’ or a ‘तद्धित’ affix follows, the (ending) इ-वर्ण: (letter ‘इ’ or ‘ई’) or the (ending) अवर्ण: (letter ‘अ’ or ‘आ’) of a अङ्गम् with the भ-सञ्ज्ञा takes elision (लोपः)।

= मीमांसक । Note: The प्रातिपदिकम् ‘मीमांसक’ declines like राम-शब्दः।