The verse and its meaning · Tattva · Tattva — Mimamsa — Words, Duty and Meaning

Sentences Aim at Action

Mimamsa Sutras 1.1.25

तद्भूतानां क्रियार्थेन सामाम्नायोऽर्थस्य तन्निमित्तत्त्वात् ॥

Meaning · English

Words that are so bound together in a sentence have meaning through their use for action, since the sense of a word depends on that purpose.

The question behind this sutra continues the one just before it, 1.1.24, which asks whether a word's meaning comes from its origin (utpatti). Mimamsa, the school that studies the Vedic texts and the duty they lay down (dharma), answers that even granting the words 'have come into being' (tadbhutanam), their traditional use (samamnaya) exists for the sake of an action, and it is that action-purpose, not their coming-into-being, which is the cause of their meaning (tannimittatvat). Kriya means action, the thing to be done. The sutra says the words, bound together as a whole (samamnaya, the sentence taken as a unit), have their sense because of that action, not because of any point of origin. The reasoning is that a word alone names a thing, but nothing is asked of anyone until it sits in a sentence that points toward doing something. The word 'water' tells you nothing to do. 'Bring water' does. By tying meaning to action rather than to origin, Mimamsa clears the way to hold that words, and so the Veda, need no beginning in time and can be eternal (apaurusheya). Shabara, the classic commentator, is well known for building on this idea: that a Vedic sentence is authoritative because it directs action.

Think of a recipe card. 'Flour', 'salt' and 'oven' are only labels until the card strings them into 'mix, knead, bake'. The list of nouns tells you nothing. The sentence turns them into a task. In the same way, Mimamsa holds that words gain their working sense when a sentence points them toward something to do.

Philosophy of language has a close cousin of this idea. J. L. Austin and John Searle described speech acts: commands, promises and requests do things rather than describe them. Wittgenstein likewise said meaning lies in use. Frege held that a word has meaning only in the context of a sentence. All of these sit near Mimamsa's claim. Where they part is the scope. Mimamsa makes action the purpose of language as such, while modern linguists treat describing, asking and joking as equally basic functions. Statements about the weather are not obviously commands in disguise. Mimamsa also ties this to duty, a kind of deontology, where obligation is not reduced to consequences. Whether all meaning serves action stays contested, and most linguists would say no.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Word Is Eternal · Mimamsa Sutras 1.1.18
• Next: Named for Teachers · Mimamsa Sutras 1.1.30
• All of Tattva · Ask Krishna about it

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