[306] These are the two great Mímáṃsá schools. The former, called abhihitánvaya-vádinaḥ, hold (like the Naiyáyika school) that words by themselves can express their separate meaning by the function abhidhá or "denotation;" these are subsequently combined into a sentence expressing one connected idea. The latter, called anvitábhidhána-vádinaḥ, hold that words only express a meaning as parts of a sentence and grammatically connected with each other; they only mean an action or something connected with an action. In gám ánaya, gám does not properly mean gotva, but ánayanánvita-gotva, i.e., the bovine genus as connected with "bringing." We cannot have a case of a noun without some governing verb, and vice versâ. Cf. Waitz, as quoted by Professor Sayce (Comparative Philology, page 136): "We do not think in words but in sentences; hence we may assert that a living language consists of sentences, not of words. But a sentence is formed not of single independent words, but of words which refer to one another in a particular manner, like the corresponding thought, which does not consist of single independent ideas, but of such as, connected, form a whole, and determine one another mutually."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE PÁṆINI-DARŚANA.[307]
If any one asks, "Where are we to learn how to separate a root and an affix so as to be able to say, 'This part is the original root and this is an affix,'" may we not reply that to those who have drunk the waters of Patañjali this question produces no confusion, since it is notorious that the rules of grammar have reference to this very point of the separation of the original roots and affixes? Thus the very first sentence of the venerable Patañjali, the author of the "Great Commentary," is "atha śabdánuśásanam," "Now comes the exposition of words." The particle atha ("now") is used here as implying a new topic or a commencement; and by the phrase, "exposition of words," is meant the system of grammar put forth by Páṇini. Now a doubt might here arise as to whether this phrase implies that the exposition of words is to be the main topic or not; and it is to obviate any such doubt that he employed the particle atha, since this particle implies that what follows is to be treated as the main topic to the exclusion of everything else.
The word "exposition" (anuśásana), as here used, implies that thereby Vaidic words, such as those in the line śaṃ no devír abhishṭaye,[308] &c., and secular words as ancillary to these, as the common words for "cow," "horse," "man," "elephant," "bird," &c., are made the subject of the exposition, i.e., are deduced from their original roots and properly formed, or, in other words, are explained as divided into root and affix. We must consider that the compound in this phrase represents a genitive of the object [śabdánuśásanam standing for śabdasyánuśásanam], and as there is a rule of Páṇini (karmaṇi cha, ii. 2, 14), which prohibits composition in such a construction, we are forced to concede that the phrase śabdánuśásanam does not come before us as a duly authorised compound.
Here, however, arises a discussion [as to the true application of the alleged rule of Páṇini], for we hold that, by ii. 3, 66, wherever an object and an agent are both expressed in one and the same sentence in connection with a word ending with a kṛit affix, there the object alone can be put in the genitive and not the agent;[309] this limitation arising from our taking ubhayaprápti in the sútra as a bahuvríhi compound.[310] Thus we must say, "Wonderful is the milking of cows by an unpractised cowherd." We may, however, remark in passing that some authors do maintain that the agent may in such cases be put in the genitive (as well as the object); hence we find it stated in the Káśiká Commentary: "Some authors maintain that there should be an option in such cases without any distinction, and thus they would equally allow such a construction as 'the exposition of words of the teacher' or 'by the teacher.'" Inasmuch, however, as the words of the phrase in question really mean that the "exposition" intended relates to words and not to things, and since this can be at once understood without any mention of the agent, i.e., the teacher, any such mention would be plainly superfluous; and therefore as the object and the agent are not both expressed in one and the same sentence, this is not an instance of the genitive of the object (coming under ii. 3, 66, and ii. 2, 14), but rather an instance of quite another rule, viz., ii. 3, 65, which directs that an agent or an object, in connection with a word ending with a kṛit affix, is to be put in the genitive [which in this instance is expressed by the tatpurusha compound]; and the compound in question will be strictly analogous to such recognised forms as idhma-pravraśchana, paláśa-śátana, &c.[311] Or we might argue that the genitive case implied in this shashṭhítatpurusha is one of the class called "residual," in accordance with Páṇini's rule (ii. 3, 50), "Let the genitive be used in the residuum," [i.e., in the other constructions not provided for by special rules];[312] and in this way we might defend the phrase against the opponent's attack. "But," it might be replied, "your alleged 'residual genitive' could be assumed everywhere, and we should thus find all the prohibitions of composition in constructions with a genitive case rendered utterly nugatory." This we readily grant, and hence Bhartṛihari in his Vákyapadíya has shown that these rules are mainly useful where the question relates to the accent.[313] To this effect are the words of the great doctor Vardhamána—
"In secular utterances men may proceed as they will,
"But in Vaidic paths let minute accuracy of speech be employed.