The Karma-Mimamsa c8.2

c8.2

Of the Vedic texts the Brāhmaṇas afford the immediate material for the extraction of the injunctions which are the essential part of the Veda, but they contain also passages which cannot be treated as dealing with either positive or negative injunctions, and are classed either as explanatory matter, Arthavāda, or name, Nāmadheya. The Arthavāda (I, 2, 1-30) at first sight seems not to be entitled to authority, but Kumārila and Prabhākara alike defend its validity, the latter against the charge that such sentences are inexpressive, since they are not construed with injunctive verbal forms. The value of the Arthavāda, both hold, lies in it either extolling desirable, or censuring forbidden, acts; it thus comes into immediate connection with injunction or prohibition. Hence it follows that, in cases where it might be possible to extract from an Arthavāda an injunction, it is needless to do so, the passage being adequately explained if it remains eulogistic of some action already enjoined. Arthavādas may be variously divided, but the simplest division is into three classes: the first is where in contradiction of some other means of proof a quality is asserted to exist, as in "The post is the sun," which serves to extol the brilliance of the post. Or it may merely reiterate a truth known otherwise, as in "Agni is a protection from the cold." Or it merely may refer to something which has happened, neither contradicted by other means of proof nor already known.