1.3.9
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.3.9
शास्त्रस्था वा तन्निमित्तत्वात्
śāstrasthā vā tannimittatvāt
The line
Or rather, the settled use is the one that rests on the sacred text, because the trained man is its ground.
नेपालीमा
बरु निश्चित प्रयोग त्यो हो जुन शास्त्रमा अडिन्छ, किनकि शिष्ट मानिस त्यसको आधार हो।
Where it sits
vipratipattiḥ (विप्रतिपत्तिः) from 1.3.8 is what vā (वा) turns. śāstrasthā (शास्त्रस्था) is feminine and picks up that disputed usage. tad in tannimittatvāt (तन्निमित्तत्वात्) is the trained man, the same figure as in the practice lines, now as the keeper of the text.
Split: śāstra-sthā (शास्त्र-स्था) + vā (वा) + tad-nimittatvāt (तद्-निमित्तत्वात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| śāstra-sthā (शास्त्र-स्था) | nominative singular, feminine | the one that rests on the sacred text |
| vā (वा) | indeclinable | or rather |
| tad-nimittatvāt (तद्-निमित्तत्वात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because that is the ground |
The phrases
vā (वा) turns the view. The settled use is the one that rests on the śāstra (शास्त्र). The ground is the trained man. His memory of the words and of the Veda has not broken. He is the cause by which recitation and memory are fixed.
The Veda shows the long-awned barley: when other plants wilt, these stand as if glad. The cake is made of that barley. priyaṅgu (प्रियङ्गु) is a secondary use. Both come up when the old crop is gone, and the likeness is only that.
Cows run after the hog, and the text uses varāha (वराह) of that animal, so varāha (वराह) is the hog. The cane is born in water, and the text uses vetasa of that plant, so vetasa is the cane, not the jambu of dry ground.
Sanskrit in this line
tannimittatvāt (तन्निमित्तत्वात्) joins tad and nimittatvāt (निमित्तत्वात्), so d before n is heard as n. The feminine ending of śāstrasthā (शास्त्रस्था) has no feminine noun in the line. It agrees with the usage carried from 1.3.8.
Say it back
Fix yava as the long-awned barley, varāha (वराह) as the hog, and vetasa as the water-cane.
Next
1.3.10. A meaning fixed even by outsiders is accepted when no means of knowing contradicts it.