अनुर्लक्षणे

The word अनु , when it denotes a sign, is called कर्म-प्रवचनीय।
The word lakshana means a sign; an attendant circumstance an invariable concomitant or accident in its logical sense and not merely an occasional concurrence. The force of अनु in this case is that of 'after,' 'in consequence of,' 'because of, or being indicated by.' As जपमनु प्रावर्षम् it rained after or in consequence of the muttering of prayers. To put it in other words, anu is a karmapravachniya when it governs the word which indicates the cause or the attendant circumstance of an action.

So also शाकलस्य संहितामनु प्रावर्षत् = शाकल्येन सुकृतां संहितामनुनिशम्य देवः प्रावर्षत्. The God (clouds) rained having listened to the well performed reading, by Sakalya. The force of a karmapravachaniya, therefore, when fully analysed will be found to be that of an upasarga whose verb is not expressed in the sentence but is understood; and because of its being so understood, the particle itself seems to govern the noun which in fact was governed by the unexpressed verb. Thus in the above example संहितां is in the accusative case, apparently governed by the preposition अनु, but really governed by the verb अनुनिशम्य understood.

So also अनडुद् यज्ञमन्वसिंचत्. The Taurus sprinkled water after the sacrifice, अगस्त्यमन्वसिंचत् प्रजाः the people began sprinkling water after the rising of the canopus.

Why make unnecessarily this sutra, when अनु would have been called karma pravachaniya even by force of sutra 1.4.90 following, where also the word lakshana occurs? This is for the sake of indicating that the karma pravachaniyas should always govern the accusative case 2.3.8 even in expressing हेतु 2.3.23. Otherwise Rule 23rd of the third chapter of Book II would have set aside Rule 8 of the same by the maxim of परत्व (1.3. 2): and would have caused a karana pravachaniya to govern an Instrumental case where the sense was that of hetu.