Verse 3.7.55

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of verse 3.7.55:

तद्व्यापारविवेकेऽपि स्वव्यापारे व्यवस्थितम् ।
कर्मापदिष्टान् लभते क्वचिच्छास्त्राश्रयान् विधीन् ॥ ५५ ॥

tadvyāpāraviveke'pi svavyāpāre vyavasthitam |
karmāpadiṣṭān labhate kvacicchāstrāśrayān vidhīn || 55 ||

55. When the activity of the main agent is not meant to be expressed, then the object attains the status of agent in regard to its own activity and the śāstra prescribes that the word expressive of it (that is, the verb) should possess the marks which it would have if it expressed the object.

Commentary

How what was karma at first becomes ‘kartā’ later is now explained.

[Read verse 55 above]

[The previous verse spoke about, agents of minor actions becoming object, etc. in regard to the main agent. How something becomes agent (kartā) after having been karma is now explained. When the activity of the main agent is not meant to be expressed as in ‘bhidyate kusūlaḥ svayam eva = ‘the granary-breaks by itself’ in order to emphasise the rickety nature of the granary or as in ‘pacyate odanaḥ svayam eva’ = ‘the rice cooks by itself’, in order to emphasise the extreme facility with which a particular kind of rice cooks, the granary and rice which would have been objects in sentences where the activity of the main agent is meant to be expressed, become agents and the suffix in the verb expresses the activity of the new agents. But the verb shows also elements like ‘yak’ which it normally takes when it expresses the object and not the agent. This happens only, in the case of verbs made from roots which are karmasthabhāvaka or karmasthakriya and not kartṛsthabhāvaka or kartṛsthakriya.

Examples of these four kinds of roots are given in the following verse.

karmasthaḥ pacater bhāvaḥ karmasthā ca bhideḥ kriyā/
māsāsibhāvaḥ kartṛsthaḥ kartṛsthā ca gameḥ kriyā // (Kāsikā on P. 3.1.87).]