History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.455

v7.c93.455

There are Mīmāṁsā rules about the interpretation of words and also about sentences. First a few of the rules about words may be illustrated (1) Śabara in the very first sentence of his bhāṣya propounds the principle that as far as possible the words in the sūtras of Jaimini and in the Veda are to be understood in the sense in which they are understood in popular usage and not in a secondary or technical sense. The same rule is propounded by Jaimini in III. 2. 1-2 in connection with the meaning of ‘barhis’ in the mantra ‘I cut the barhis as an abode for gods’. Here the conclusion is that barhis is to be taken in the primary sense of ‘handful of kusa grass’ and not in a secondary sense such as kāśa or other kind of grass. Śabara winds up with the²¹⁰⁸ words 'between the primary and secondary senses of a word it is proper to hold that the primary sense is to be taken for the business in hand'. Again, on I. 3. 30 Śabara says²¹⁰⁹ that the words are the same as in the Veda and popular use and the meanings are the same.