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activity, i.e., the activity
p
which accomplishes it, the group of objects the real
pramān
a
provides is logically equivalent to the group of fruitful activities.
Uddyotakara concludes his analysis of the relation between
pramān
a
and
samar-
tha
-
pravr
r
t
i
by noting that:
When a man acts according to an object the real
pramān
a
provides, the
activity he performs is fruitful and the fact that it is fruitful reveals him
to be a knower. On the other hand, when a man acts according to an ob-
ject the unreal
pramān
a
provides the activity he performs is not fruitful
(and the fact that it is not fruitful reveals him not to be a knower).
8
It follows from the fact that for every fruitful activity
p
corresponds one and only
one meaningful thing
p
, that if there is a fruitful activity we express as
p
we can une-
quivocally determine that
p
is meaningful. It further follows from the fact that the
group of all possible fruitful activities is logically equivalent to the group of all possi-
ble meaningful things, that we can determine a certain thing
p
to be meaningful only
if there is a fruitful activity we describe as
p
. Fruitful activities are, then, that by
which we can determine whether a certain thing
p
is meaningful and without which
determining whether things are meaningful would have been impossible. In other
words, fruitful activities determine the bounds of sense, they are the criteria of mean-
ing; and since knowing is nothing but grasping the correct meaning of a thing, fruitful
activities are the criteria of knowledge, they are the
pramān
a
.
Further on in the introduction, Uddyotakara examines the issue of
kāraka-śabdas
.
The term
kāraka-śabda
means 'word which expresses activity'. All the words which
denote the agents, the instruments or the objects of activities fall under the category of
kāraka-śabda
. An account of the way
kāraka-śabdas
operate is, of course, of pivotal
importance to a position which regards the linguistic expression of activities to be the
criterion of meaningfulness and knowledge. Uddyotakara explains how he takes
kāraka-śabdas
to operate when he responds to an objection raised by the
pūrvapaks
in
.
The
pūrvapaks
in
claims it to be inconceivable for
kāraka-śabdas
to derive their mean-
ing from something other than the on-going activity to which they refer and that
kāraka-śabdas
can obtain their meaning and become operative only after the on-going
activity to which they refer is completed.
9
To this Uddyotakara replies that if a 'cook'
was a cook only while he was cooking, this would mean that he became a cook only
once he began cooking and that he would cease to be a cook as soon as he completed
cooking, which is preposterous.
10
Similarly, if a 'stove' and a 'dish' were a stove and a
dish only during a cooking session, it would mean that they became a stove and a dish
8
NV 1.1.1, pp. 2 line 2 -
सोSयं माता यदा माणेनाथमवधाय वतते तदाय वृिः समथा भवित.
यदा पुनः माणाभासेनावधाय वतते तदासमथा. तयाः पुनरथववम्
9
NV 1.1.1, p. 5 line 21 -
न च कारकशदाः यासंबधमतरेणामानं लभत इित. न च मां
कारकम्, न च यामािमित. कारकशदो िह वतमानः यासाधने यािवषेशयुे वतते.
मातृमेयशदौ च कारकशदौ तावतरेण यां न वतयातािमित.
10
NV 1.1.1, pp. 6, line 3 -
न, पाचकादशदवत् िकालिवषयवात्. न ूमः यासंबधेनैव कारकशदाः
वतत इित. अिप तु िकालिवषया एते. यद यासंबधिनिमा युः, न यामतरेण वतरन्.
यासंबधमतरेण तु वतते.
