1.1.1
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.1.1
अथातो धर्मजिज्ञासा
athāto dharmajijñāsā
The line
Now, therefore, the desire to know dharma (धर्म).
नेपालीमा
अब, यसैले, धर्म जान्ने इच्छा हो।
Where it sits
Adhyāya (अध्याय) 1 is the philosophy of the school. This line names the object. 1.1.2 defines it. 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 say why a word, and not an eye, is how you know it. The other eleven books apply that answer to the rites.
Split: atha (अथ) + ataḥ (अतः) + dharma-jijñāsā (धर्म-जिज्ञासा)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| atha (अथ) | indeclinable | now. The instruction begins. |
| ataḥ (अतः) | indeclinable | therefore. After the Veda has been learned by heart, the thinking-through can start. Śabara (शबर)'s discussion of what ataḥ (अतः) points back to is long. The line needs only: something required has already happened. |
| dharma-jijñāsā (धर्म-जिज्ञासा) | nominative singular, feminine | the desire to know dharma (धर्म). In this book dharma (धर्म) is not a mood and not a custom. The next line says what it is. |
The phrases
The shape is the same shape Bādarāyaṇa (बादरायण) will use: athāto (अथातो), then a desire to know, then the object of the desire in front of the abstract. Here the object is dharma (धर्म).
No verb. The book announces itself.
Sanskrit in this line
atha + ataḥ (अतः) becomes athātaḥ (अथातः), and the visarga is then lost before d, so you hear athāto (अथातो) dharma (धर्म). a + a is ā (आ). A visarga before a voiced consonant can become o. Both joins are in this one recited word.
Say it back
Say the line, and say what jijñāsā (जिज्ञासा) is a desire for.