History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.498

v7.c93.498

A few examples must be cited to illustrate the principle of *vākyabheda*. A simple example is 'graham sammārṣṭi'. If one were to interpret this as meaning 'he is to clean the cup' and also as meaning that only a single cup is to be cleaned there would be vākyabheda. Therefore, it was decided that the singular number in 'graham' is not to be insisted upon and cleaning of all cups was to be resorted to; otherwise there would be two vidhis viz. 'graham sammṛjyāt' and 'ekam-eva sammṛjyāt'. Śabara quotes (on PMS I. 3. 3) a śruti 'one who has a son and whose hair is dark should consecrate the vedic fires'. *Agnyādhāna* is laid down by śruti texts such as Tai. Br. I. 1. 2. 6, Śat II. 1. 2. Therefore, the above text only lays down certain subsidiary matters about it A man may have dark hair but no son or he may have a son when his hair is turning grey. Therefore, if that sentence is meant to prescribe both attributes (having a son and also having dark hair), there would be two distinct vidhis in the same *vākya*, that is, there would be the fault of vākyabheda, which has to be avoided. Therefore, that sentence must be understood as indicating a certain age viz. he must not be a mere boy (at the time of agnyādhāna) but of an age to bear a son, nor very old (when hair turns grey). i. e. he must be neither too young nor too old at the time of agnyādhāna. A lakṣanā as regards the words 'jātaputraḥ' and 'kṛṣṇakeśaḥ' is resorted to and lakṣaṇā is only a fault as to a word, while vākyabheda is a fault of a sentence and therefore lakṣaṇā should be preferred to vākyabheda. The V. M. quotes (p. 115) the verse of Manu²¹³²