The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48
Religion
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48
Vedanta
in co-ordination with a word denoting a substance--denotes a _mere_
quality. Nor is it correct to say that a quality-word occurring in a
sentence which has already mentioned a substance denotes a mere quality:
for in a sentence such as 'the cloth (is) white,' where a substance is
mentioned in the first place, the quality-word clearly denotes (not mere
whiteness but) something which possesses the quality of whiteness. When,
on the other hand, we have a collocation of words such as 'patasya
suklah' ('of the cloth'--gen.; 'white' nom.), the idea of a cloth
distinguished by whiteness does not arise; but this is due not to the
fact of the substance being mentioned first, but to the fact of the two
words exhibiting different case-terminations. As soon as we add to those
two words an appropriate third one, e.g. 'bhâgah' (so that the whole
means 'The white part of a cloth'), the co-ordination of two words with
the same case-termination gives rise to the idea of a thing
distinguished by the attribute of whiteness.--Nor can we agree to the
contention that, as the buying of the Soma is exclusively concluded by
the cow one year old (as instrumental in the purchase), the quality of
tawniness (denoted by the word 'arunayâ') cannot connect itself with the
action expressed by the verb; for a word that denotes a quality and
stands in co-ordination with a word denoting a substance which has no
qualities opposed in nature to that quality, denotes a quality abiding
in that substance, and thus naturally connects itself with the action
expressed by the verb. And since, as shown, the quality of tawniness
connects itself with its substance (the cow) on the mere basis of the
form of the words, it is wrong (on the part of the Pûrvapakshin to
abandon this natural connexion and) to establish their connexion on the
ground of their being otherwise incapable of serving as means of the
purchase.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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