Sarvadarshanasangraha 13.16

13.16

[we reply:] it is not so, because we do not accept that the understanding of words is to be accomplished by word-for-word recitation, and because when grammatical rules possessing general and particular forms are applied all at once, like a rain-cloud, to illustrative forms that admit the conceptual division of base and affix, one observes the instruction of many words [simultaneously]. For instance: by the single general rule, 'In the sense of an object, [the affix] aṇ [occurs]' (Pāṇini 3.2.1), when the affix aṇ is applied to any verbal root preceded by an object-word, one observes the instruction of many words, such as kumbhakāraḥ ('potter') and kāṇḍalāvaḥ ('stalk-cutter'). Likewise, by the single particular rule, 'After [a verbal root ending in] ā without a prefix, [the affix] ka [occurs]' (Pāṇini 3.2.18), when the affix ka is applied to a verbal root ending in ā, one observes the instruction of many words, such as dhānyadaḥ ('grain-giver') and dhanadaḥ ('wealth-giver'). The passage beginning 'Bṛhaspati [spoke] to Indra' is an explanatory praise whose purpose is to demonstrate the impossibility of word-for-word recitation.