History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.335

v2.c24.s1.335

*Subjects of Study:*—The study of the Veda means the study of the Mantras and the Brāhmaṇa portion of the particular śākhā or śākhās.⁸⁵⁵ The Veda was deemed to be eternal and not composed by any human author (i. e. it is apauruṣeya). Jaimini in I. 1. 6-23 establishes that the relation of word and sense is eternal and that (in I. 1. 27-32) the Vedas are apauruṣeya. This is not the place to set out or examine the arguments. All| dharmaśāstra writers proceed on this axiom of the eternity of the Veda. The Vedāntasūtra (I. 3. 28-29) says that the Vedas are eternal and the whole universe (including the gods) emanates from the Veda and reliance is placed on certain Upaniṣad passages and on Manu I. 21, Śānti-parva 233. 24 and other smṛtis. The Bṛ. Up. IV. 5. 11 says that the Vedas are the breath of the great Being (i. e. the Supreme Spirit, God); in Bṛ. Up. I. 2. 5 the Creator (Prajāpati) is said to have evolved all this viz. Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda, yajñas and so forth. The Śvetāśvatara Up. VI. 18 says that the Supreme Being evolved Brahmā and imparted the Vedas to him.⁸⁵⁶ The Śāntiparva⁸⁵⁷ says that speech in the form of Veda is without beginning and without end, from which all activities and creation proceed, and that the Vedas become latent at the periodical dissolution of the world and become manifest to the great sages again when the world is recreated. But the eternity of the Veda and apauruṣeyatva of the Veda were interpreted in various ways e. g. the Mahābhāṣya says that, though the purport of the Veda is eternal, yet the arrangement of words is non-eternal and therefore there are various śākhās (branches or recensions) of the Veda, named Kāṭhaka, Kālāpaka &c.⁸⁵⁸