1.4.29
Mīmāṃsā Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.4.29
सन्दिग्धेषु वाक्यशेषात्
sandigdheṣu vākyaśeṣāt
The line
In doubtful cases the remainder of the sentence decides, and it decides for ghee.
नेपालीमा
सन्देह परेका ठाउँमा वाक्यशेषले निर्णय गर्छ, र त्यो निर्णय घृततिर हुन्छ।
Where it sits
sandigdheṣu (सन्दिग्धेषु) are sentences whose opening can be read two ways. vākyaśeṣa (वाक्यशेष) is the tail, the same kind of remainder that was missing in the manuals of 1.3.13 and that failed as a simple tail in 1.4.19. Here the tail is what decides. The pebbles, the linen garment, and the udumbara post are three cases of one rule.
Split: sandigdheṣu (सन्दिग्धेषु) + vākya-śeṣāt (वाक्य-शेषात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| sandigdheṣu (सन्दिग्धेषु) | locative plural, neuter | in doubtful cases |
| vākya-śeṣāt (वाक्य-शेषात्) | ablative singular, masculine | from the remainder of the sentence |
The phrases
The pebbles, being smeared, he lays. Ghee is splendor. The doubt is whether the pebbles are smeared with any of ghee, oil, or fat, or with ghee alone. The sentence opens with smearing in general and closes with ghee.
The first view keeps the general opening and treats ghee as a figure for fat in general, on the pattern of a word used for a whole group. The decision goes the other way. The opening is not an injunction. The pebbles are described with a present participle, being smeared. Nothing general has been enjoined for the close to contradict. The praise of ghee is direct. A figurative cover of fat in general would be weaker than the direct word. So the smearing is with ghee.
The same close of the sentence fixes linen. He puts on a garment, and linen is the cloth of all the deities. And it fixes the post. He should touch this and lead up, for this udumbara post is the one all beings live on.
Sanskrit in this line
sandigdheṣu (सन्दिग्धेषु) writes n for the anusvāra (अनुस्वार) of sam before d. vākyaśeṣāt (वाक्यशेषात्) is an ablative of source. The present participle aktāḥ (अक्ताः) is Śabara (शबर)'s reason that the opening does not enjoin. It is not a word of the sūtra (सूत्र).
Say it back
Say that the pebbles are smeared with ghee, the garment is linen, and the post touched is the udumbara, each from the close of its sentence.
Next
1.4.30. The instrument is settled by what the action can use, and only that part is assumed.