1.2.12
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.2.12
दूरभूयस्त्वात्
dūrabhūyastvāt
The line
Because of distance and predominance.
नेपालीमा
दूरी र प्रधानताका कारण।
Where it sits
The sentences read as guṇavāda (गुणवाद) since 1.2.10 are still the subject. This one answers the perceptual conflict raised in 1.2.2. The agnihotra performance is what the sentence praises. It is not a new act of looking at smoke.
Split: dūra-bhūyastvāt (दूर-भूयस्त्वात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| dūra-bhūyastvāt (दूर-भूयस्त्वात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because of distance and because of being the greater part |
The phrases
The sentence about smoke by day and flame by night is the remainder of the two mantras of the agnihotra, the daily milk offering. In the evening one offers with 'fire is light, light is fire.' In the morning one offers with 'the sun is light, light is the sun.' The mantras have mixed marks, and the sentence that follows them is expected.
The praise is that the offering is made when both deities are present. 'Only smoke by day, only flame by night' is not a literal report. Distance, and the fact that one or the other predominates, let the words be figurative. The sacrificer is not being told that the eye is wrong.
Sanskrit in this line
Dūra (दूर) is far. Bhūyas (भूय) is more, the greater part. The abstract tva joins them as one reason.
Say it back
Say what the evening and morning offerings are, and why the smoke sentence is praise of them rather than a report about fire.
Next
1.2.13. Not knowing one's brahminhood is said from the wife's fault and from merely seeing a son.