Manava Dharmashastra 3.194

3.194

rakṣaiva ārakṣaḥ, tamprāptaṃ, ārakṣabhūtaṃ ārakṣārthamityuktaṃ bhavati | upamāyāṃ vā bhūtaśabdaḥ—rakṣārthamiva | yadvā tu rakṣārthaṃ ataḥ pūrvaṃ daivaṃ brāhmaṇaṃ niyojayet nimantrayet āsane copaveśayet | aparo'rthavādaḥ | rakṣāṃsi adṛśyāni kānicitsatvāni itihāse | kriyā vipralumpanti ācchindanti pitṛbhyaḥ śrāddham | ke “punardevā uddeśyāḥ” ? gṛhye tāvat “viśvāndevān havāmahe” iti mantrasya viniyogādviśvedevāḥ pratīyante | purāṇe'pyuktaṃ “viśvedevā iti śrutiriti” |

‘It should never be one beginning and ending with a rite in honour of the Pitṛs’—Inasmuch as it has been already enjoined that the act should begin and end with what is done in honour of the gods, the further prohibition of beginning and ending with what is done in honour. of the Pitṛs has to be taken, in the manner of ordinary assertions, as a purely descriptive reiteration. In ordinary parlance, having laid down one thing, one often negatives its contrary, even though there be no possibility of this latter being adopted. As a matter of fact, an action controls the substance, not what is not a substance.