1.3.2
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.3.2
अपि वा कर्तृसामान्यात् प्रमाणमनुमानं स्यात्
api vā kartṛsāmānyāt pramāṇam anumānaṃ syāt
The line
Or rather, because the authors are of the same kind, an inference of a Vedic text is the means of knowing, and memory stands by it.
नेपालीमा
बरु रचयिता उही किसिमका भएकाले वैदिक पाठको अनुमान जान्ने साधन हो, र स्मृति त्यसमा अड्छ।
Where it sits
aśabdam (अशब्दम्) from 1.3.1 is what is now accepted when its end is unseen. anapekṣam (अनपेक्षम्) is lifted for those rules. Practices with a visible end stay outside dharma (धर्म) and do not use this inference.
Split: api (अपि) + vā (वा) + kartṛ-sāmānyāt (कर्तृ-सामान्यात्) + pramāṇam (प्रमाणम्) + anumānam (अनुमानम्) + syāt (स्यात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| api (अपि) | indeclinable | also, marking a turn of view |
| vā (वा) | indeclinable | or rather |
| kartṛ-sāmānyāt (कर्तृ-सामान्यात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because the authors are of the same kind |
| pramāṇam (प्रमाणम्) | nominative singular, neuter | a means of knowing |
| anumānam (अनुमानम्) | nominative singular, neuter | an inference |
| syāt (स्यात्) | third person singular, optative, of the verb as | it would be |
The phrases
api vā (वा) turns the view. The men who composed the remembered rules are the same kind of men as those who know Vedic matters. From that sameness one infers a text.
They could not have seen an unseen fruit in this life, and another birth is not remembered. What is inferred is a Vedic sentence, which can have been forgotten. Forgetting is possible, so the inference can stand. The inference is the means of knowing, and the memory is authoritative through it.
The eighth-day offering has signs in the Veda, in mantras where people greet it. Following the teacher, digging a tank, setting up a drinking place, and making the topknot have a visible end: a pleased teacher, help to others, a family mark. Those stand by that visible end. Where the end is unseen, the inferred Vedic word is the ground.
Sanskrit in this line
pramāṇam (प्रमाणम्) and anumānam (अनुमानम्) are both nominative singular, neuter, in apposition. The inference itself is the means of knowing. kartṛsāmānyāt (कर्तृसामान्यात्) is the ablative of cause.
Say it back
Say that an unseen remembered rule stands by an inferred Vedic sentence, and that a visible end needs no such sentence.
Next
1.3.3. Where memory conflicts with a heard text, it is not heeded, because the inference then fails.