Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c19.s1.1

c19.s1.1

It has been seen that according to *Prabhākara*, people learn the meaning of Words only by watching the usage and activity of older people. When a set of words is addressed by one person to another,—whereupon the latter person acts in a certain manner, it is clear to the observer that the meaning of the words pronounced must have been in the form of an Injunction to do what the other person has done. In the case of Words where such an interpretation is not possible, the comprehension of the meaning must depend upon something indirectly connected with the Injunction. This is the reason why Prabhākara has asserted in connection with the definition of Verbal Cognition that the object cognised must be one that has not been already cognised by another means of Cognition; and this can be so always in the case of the Injunctive Sentence. All words with the Imperative or similar terminations express the Injunction directly, while other words denote things related to that Injunction; such things, for instance, as the name of the Act enjoined, the person enjoined and so on. This leads to the view that the whole direct denotation of the Veda must lie in the enjoining of something to be done. This goes directly against the view of the Vedāntin that the direct denotation of the more important texts lies, not in the laying down of something to be done, but in the pointing out of certain well-accomplished entities like Brahman, the Super-Soul. As against this Vedanta view, it has been pointed out (Bṛhatī., p. 47) that, though such may be the case with a few words, yet the comprehension of the denotation of those words also could be obtained only by observing the usage of older persons, and this usage must always lie in the form of an Injunction addressed by one person to another for the doing of a certain act; thus ultimately the denotation of all Words must lie, directly or indirectly, with something to be done. The Vedānta-texts also speak of the Super-Soul as something which one is enjoined to know and meditate upon, in order to escape from the cycle of Births and Deaths.