---
type: Concept
bundle: mimamsa-dharma
bundle_version: 0.10.0
id: autpattika
title: Autpattika
iast: Autpattika
devanagari: औत्पत्तिक
description: 'The doctrine that the relation of a word to its meaning is inherent and non-conventional, not established by anyone''''s agreement; the ground on which Vedic words mean reliably without an institutor; NOT arbitrary convention, NOT a social contract of language.'
darshana:
- Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā
text_source: Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 1.1.5
tags:
- autpattika
- mimamsa
- word-meaning
- inherent-relation
not:
- term: 'arbitrary convention (a social contract)'
  why: 'Nyāya and modern views hold the word-meaning link is instituted by agreement and could have been otherwise. The autpattika thesis is precisely the denial of this: the relation is natural and beginningless, so no institutor is needed and the Veda''''s words mean without anyone having assigned it.'
  instead: 'Render autpattika as the inherent, non-conventional word-meaning relation, not an agreed convention.'
- term: 'onomatopoeic or iconic naturalness'
  why: '''''Natural'''' here does not mean the sound resembles the thing; it means the signifying relation is underived and permanent, not resemblance-based.'
- term: 'etymological derivation'
  why: 'Autpattika is about the standing relation of word to meaning, not about deriving a word''''s sense from its roots.'
related:
- /concepts/sabda-nityata.md
- /concepts/apauruseyatva.md
timestamp: '2026-07-08'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Autpattika -- औत्पत्तिक

**Not:** arbitrary convention, iconic naturalness, etymology

## What It Actually Means

Jaimini''s sūtra autpattikas tu śabdasyārthena sambandhaḥ, "the relation of a word with its meaning is inherent," is the linchpin of the whole authority-structure. If the bond were conventional, someone must have set the convention, and the Veda would trace to an author. By holding the bond inherent and eternal, Mīmāṃsā secures authorless, self-standing Vedic meaning. Autpattika, śabda-nityatā, and apauruṣeyatva form one interlocking argument: eternal words, eternally bound to meanings, in an authorless text.

## Audience Metaphor

Fire''s relation to heat is not a convention people agreed on; it holds by the nature of fire. Mīmāṃsā treats a word''s relation to its meaning the same way: not assigned, not up for a vote, but standing in the nature of the word itself.

## Citations

1. Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 1.1.5 (autpattikas tu śabdasyārthena sambandhaḥ) -- see [references/mimamsa-sutra.md](../references/mimamsa-sutra.md)
2. Śabara-Bhāṣya on the inherent relation -- see [references/sabara-bhashya.md](../references/sabara-bhashya.md)
