Mimamsasutra 103.2

103.2

idaṃ padebhyaḥ kebhyaścid uttaraṃ sūtram. kāni tāni padāni. atha kim arthaṃ na liṅgād vyavasthā. yathā - śuklo hotā iti. nāsti tan nityam eṣāṃ liṅgam, yad yathādarśanam anuvartate. ye 'pi śyāmā bṛhanto lohitākṣāḥ, te 'pi na sarva ārhnīnaibukādīn kurvate. anevaṃliṅgā api cānutiṣṭhanti. tasmān na vyavasthā. śuklo hoteti pratyakṣā śrutiḥ.

This aphorism is an answer to certain words. What are those words? "Now, why should there not be a restriction based on an indicative mark? As in: 'The Hotṛ is fair-skinned.'" There is no such constant characteristic mark of these people that regularly follows what is observed. Even those who are dark-skinned, tall, and red-eyed do not all perform Āhnīnaibuka and the like; and those lacking such characteristics also perform them. Therefore, there is no restriction. "The Hotṛ is fair-skinned" is an explicit direct scriptural statement.