Sarvadarshanasangraha 12.46

12.46

na cānumānabalāc chabdasyānityatvasiddhiḥ/ pratyabhijñavirodhāt/ na cāsaty apy ekatve sāmānyanibandhanaṃ tad iti sāṃpratam/ sāmānyanibandhanatvam asya balavadbādhakopanipātād āsthīyate kvacid vyabhicāradarśanād vā/ tatra kvacid vyabhicāradarśane tadutprekṣāyām uktaṃ svataḥprāmāṇyavādibhiḥ —

Nor will any supposed inference establish the non-eternity of sound, because [as we said before] it is opposed to the evidence of our consciousness, [since we certainly recognise the letter now heard as the one heard before]. Nor is it reasonable to reply that, although the letters are not the same, they seem to be so on account of their identity of species. For here we ask our opponents a question—Is this idea that "the apparent sameness arises from identity of species" put forward from a wish to preclude entirely any idea of the letters being the same, or only [from an imagined fear of error] because experience shows that the recognition will sometimes be erroneous [as in the cases of the hair and jasmine mentioned above]? (a.) If it arises from the latter reason, we Mīmāṃsakas, who hold that the Veda is its own evidence, have said in reference to this timid imagination—