Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c19.s1.19

c19.s1.19

It may be observed here, as remarked by the *Prakaraṇapañchikā* (p. 101), that the ‘*Shāstra*,’ or Vedic Injunction often stands in need of some factors being supplied from without; *e.g.*, the text that speaks of a certain action merely as accomplishing a certain desirable result, stands in need of some such Injunctive words as that ‘this act should be done’; and these words have to be supplied. Similarly, certain texts stand in need of certain well-ascertained facts of experience; *e.g.*, for ascertaining the true significance of the injunction ‘*Udbhida yajēta*,’ ‘one should perform the *Udbhid*,’ it is necessary to call in the help of ordinary experience; the word ‘*Udbhid*’ in ordinary language means a tree; so the text might well be taken to mean that ‘one should perform the tree’; but here our experience steps in and tells us that such a performance would be an impossibility and it is only an account of this impossibility that we are led to take the word ‘*Udbhid*’ in the text as the name of a particular sacrifice, which is the correct interpretation. (*Vide Mīmā. Sū. 1.4.2.*)