1.2.1
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.2.1
आम्नायस्य क्रियार्थत्वादानर्थक्यमतदर्थानां तस्मादनित्यमुच्यते
āmnāyasya kriyārthatvād ānarthakyam atadarthānāṃ tasmād anityam ucyate
The line
Because the Veda has action as its purpose, sentences whose purpose is not that action are useless, and therefore they are said to be unreliable.
नेपालीमा
वेदको उद्देश्य कर्म भएकाले जसको उद्देश्य त्यो कर्म होइन ती वाक्य बेकामे हुन्छन्, यसैले तिनीहरू अविश्वसनीय भनिन्छन्।
Where it sits
Kriyā (क्रिया) from 1.1.25 and the karma (कर्म) of 1.1.32 are still the purpose of the corpus. Āmnāya (आम्नाय) is the recited Veda. This line opens the charge against narrative and similar sentences. The charge runs until the turn at 1.2.7.
Split: āmnāyasya (आम्नायस्य) + kriyā-arthatvāt (क्रिया-अर्थत्वात्) + ānarthakyam (आनर्थक्यम्) + atad-arthānām (अतद्-अर्थानाम्) + tasmāt (तस्मात्) + anityam (अनित्यम्) + ucyate (उच्यते)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| āmnāyasya (आम्नायस्य) | genitive singular, masculine | of the Veda, of the recited corpus |
| kriyā-arthatvāt (क्रिया-अर्थत्वात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because it has the action as its purpose |
| ānarthakyam (आनर्थक्यम्) | nominative singular, neuter | uselessness |
| atad-arthānām (अतद्-अर्थानाम्) | genitive plural, neuter | of those sentences whose purpose is not that action |
| tasmāt (तस्मात्) | ablative singular, neuter | from that, therefore |
| anityam (अनित्यम्) | nominative singular, neuter | unreliable, not a lasting means of knowing |
| ucyate (उच्यते) | passive, third person singular, present | it is said |
The phrases
The corpus is recited in order to say how an act is to be done. The objector then points at sentences that only tell what happened.
He wept, and because he wept that is Rudra's being Rudra. Prajāpati (प्रजापति) cut out his own omentum, the fatty membrane over the entrails, which in a rite is offered in the fire. The gods, having settled the ground of the offering, did not know the directions. These sentences do not say 'do this.'
If one twists them into commands, they become impossible. Weeping is not done at will. A man cannot cut out his own omentum, offer it, and then rise to sacrifice with a barren goat. Sacrificers do not lose the directions when they choose the ground. So the objector calls the sentences useless, and therefore calls them anitya. They are not a means of knowing dharma (धर्म). The charge is against these parts of the sentence, not against every injunctive sentence in the corpus.
Sanskrit in this line
Atadartha is not having that as its artha. Ānarthakya (आनर्थक्य) is the abstract uselessness. Anityam is said of these sentences as means of knowing, not of the phoneme already discussed. Ucyate is the passive of vac.
Say it back
State the charge with one example: a sentence that only says Rudra wept does not tell anyone what rite to perform.
Next
1.2.2. Those sentences are said to conflict with teaching and with what is seen.