1.2.31
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.2.31
तदर्थशास्त्रात्
tadarthaśāstrāt
The line
Because the teaching has that assignment as its aim.
नेपालीमा
शिक्षाको उद्देश्य त्यो तोक्नु भएकाले।
Where it sits
This opens the mantra question. The praise doctrine of the previous lines is not the predicate here. The new subject is the mantra, and the objector's claim is that mere utterance helps. That claim runs through 1.2.39. Tad points to the act the teaching ties the mantra to.
Split: tad-artha-śāstrāt (तद्-अर्थ-शास्त्रात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| tad-artha-śāstrāt (तद्-अर्थ-शास्त्रात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because the teaching is for that purpose, the assignment of the utterance |
The phrases
A new question begins. Are mantras meant as words, or is the mere uttering what helps the rite? A mantra is the formulated speech spoken while a ritual act is done.
The objector says the help is the utterance alone. His reason is the teaching that assigns them. 'Spread wide, spread wide' is a mantra said while the cake is spread. A brāhmaṇa (ब्राह्मण) sentence says 'he spreads the cake.' If the mantra helped by its meaning, that sentence would be needless, because the words would already have put it at the spreading. Since the sentence is there, the utterance is what helps, and the sentence is needed to place it.
The same shape is used for taking. Mantras fit to name a taking are already on hand from their own wording, and still a sentence says 'he takes it with four.' 'They took this halter of the horse' is another. The objector concludes that the mantra does not help by what it says. 'I cut the barhis, the seat of the gods' would not, on his view, be fixed to the cutting of the sacrificial grass by its meaning.
Sanskrit in this line
Tadartha is a bahuvrīhi (बहुव्रीहि): a teaching whose artha is tad, the placing of the utterance. The ablative is the objector's reason. Barhis is the grass strewn as a seat. The cake is the baked offering that is pressed flat.
Say it back
State the new charge in plain words: if the mantra meant the spreading, why does a separate sentence still say that he spreads the cake?
Next
1.2.32. A fixed word order is said to be useless if the meaning is the point.