1.1.3
Brahma Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.1.3
शास्त्रयोनित्वात्
śāstrayonitvāt
The line
Because scripture is the ground of knowing it.
नेपालीमा
यसलाई जान्ने आधार शास्त्र हो।
Where it sits
1.1.2 defined Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) by a relation no eye sees. 1.1.3 says the way of knowing is śāstra (शास्त्र), not a syllogism and not a look. 1.1.4 will say why the sentences of that scripture, which seem to talk about many things, are about this.
Split: śāstra-yoni-tvāt (शास्त्र-योनि-त्वात्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| śāstra-yoni-tvāt (शास्त्र-योनि-त्वात्) | ablative singular, neuter | because of scripture being the source. śāstra (शास्त्र) is the teaching, here the Upaniṣads (उपनिषद्). yoni is a womb, a source. -tva makes the abstract, 'being-a-source.' The ablative -āt (-आत्) is 'because.' |
The phrases
One word. The whole reason is the ablative. Brahman (ब्रह्मन्), defined as the source of the world, is known because scripture is the womb of that knowledge. Perception and inference do not reach a source of all arising.
Śaṅkara (शङ्कर) also reads the compound the other way for a second meaning: Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is the source of scripture. The line can bear it. The sitting's main reading is the one the argument needs next: how Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is known.
Sanskrit in this line
An ablative of an abstract in -tva is the sūtra (सूत्र)'s way of saying 'because.' You will meet -tvāt (-त्वात्) on almost every page of this book. The word it is because-of is still Brahman (ब्रह्मन्), carried forward. Nothing in the line repeats Brahman (ब्रह्मन्).
Say it back
What is the yoni, and why is the ending ablative?