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Slokavārtika-a study
means of valid cognition; similarly, he has to demonstrate that Vedas are a case of verbal testimony requiring no personal agent as its source and this necessitates a consideration of the nature of verbal testimony in general. What other philosophical problems the Mimāṁsaka cares to consider are incidental to these two central sets of problems. This at least is the picture that is left on one's mind after a close perusal of Slokavārtika. Thus the text deals with important philosophical problems in its 18 sections bearing the following titles (what is here ignored being a very small portion devoted to relatively unimportant problems) I Codanasūtra
X Citräksepavāda Il Prat yakşasūtra
XI Sphoțavāda III Niralambanayada
XII Ākstivāda IV Sün yavada
XIII Apohavada v Anumānapariccheda
XIV Vanavāda. VI Sabdapariccheda
XV Sambandhākṣepaparihara VII Upamānapariccheda
XVI Atmavāda VIII Arthāpattipariccheda
XVII Sabdanit yatādhikarana IX Abhāvapariccheda
XVIII Vāk yādhikaraña Here as many as 9. sections take up questions related to the problems of verbal testimony; this as follows:
1. Section VI demonstrates how the acquisition of the meaning of a word on someone's part is not a case of inference,
2. Section X indicates as to what precisely is the type of relationship obtaining between a word and its meaning and as to how in practice one grasps this relationship.
3. Section XI demonstrates (i) that a letter or a word is a single eternal entity and not a perishing entity possessed of an appropriate universal, and (ii) that a word is an entity made up of the letters concerned and not an independent entity (called sphoța) made manifest by these. letters.
4. Section XII demonstrates the existence of universals in the context of arguing that the signification of a word lies in a universal (rather than a particular possessed of the appropriate universal).
5. Section XIII refutes the Buddhist contention that the signification of a word lies not in a universal but in a bare conceptual demarcation.
6. Section XIV further develops the position maintained in section XII.
7. Section XV denies the possibility of a conventional fixing of the relationship between a word and its meaning-the argument being that this relationship is eternal and natural.
3. Section XVII argues that a letter or a word is something eternal and not something perishing.
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