Sarvadarshanasangraha 13.37

13.37

nanu bhavatā sphoṭātmā nityaḥ śabda iti nijāgadyate/ tan na mṛṣyāmahe/ tatra pramāṇābhāvād iti kecit/

"But," say some, "why do you talk so much of an eternal sound called sphoṭa? This we do not concede, since there is no proof that there is such a thing." We reply that our own perception is the proof. Thus there is one word "cow," since all men have the cognition of a word distinct from the various letters composing it. You cannot say, in the absence of any manifest contradiction, that this perception of the word is a false perception.