Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/76

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. lix

bute. This would be so, provided only that the mere correla- tion of a thing to two attributes is opposed to the oneness of that thing. Such is not always the case ; when the two at- tributes are contradictory, then they can not meet in one and the same thing. Many consistent attributes may and do meet in one and the same thing ; thus it is that grammatical equations become significant, and thus again it is that the perdurability of all perceived external objects can be maintained (pp. 366-371.). That the words in a grammatical equation have all the power of denoting a single thing, which is characterised by many attributes, is further shewn to be borne out by Jaimini in his Mimfimsd aphorisms ; and the Vcdic commandment "With the red, tawney-eyed heifer, one year old, let him purchase the soma plant " >is discussed fully from the stand-point of Jaimini. The conclusion here arrived at and illustrated is that, in any particular sentence forming a grammatical equation, a thing, which is characterised by one attribute or two attributes or many attributes, is denoted by certain particular words used in agreement either with the kdraka case-affixes or with the nominative case-affix ; that it is made out by means of the grammatical equation that the thing so characterised by all the attributes is only one ; and that this one thing is associated with the action deno- ted by the verb forming the predicate of the sentence. Two minor objections against this conclusion are then dis- posed of, namely, that, in a grammatical equation in which a substance is mentioned, a word denoting a quality merely denotes that quality but not a thing as qualified by that quality, and that, as the purchase of the soma plant is completely concluded with the exchange of the one year old heifer, its redness, has no necessary relation to this transaction of purchase (pp. 371-377.)'