Indian Philosophy v2.c25.s2.70

v2.c25.s2.70

¹ Evaṃ sraṣṭur vedapūrvatvaṃ sādhayatāṃ na kiṃcid uttaram bhavati, tena saty api sarge, suptaprabuddhanyāyena anādir eva vedavyavahāraḥ (Nyāyaratnākara). The Naiyāyikas dispute the Mīmāṃsā view. (1) Any tradition about the personal authorship of the Veda might have been interrupted at the last dissolution of the universe. (2) It would be impossible to prove that no one had ever recollected such an author. (3) The sentences of the Veda have the same character as other sentences. (4) The inference drawn from the present mode of transmitting the Vedas from teacher to pupil—that the same mode of transmission must have gone on from eternity breaks down, since it is equally applicable to any other book. (5) The Veda is, as a matter of fact, ascribed to a personal author. (6) Sound is not eternal, and when we recognise letters as the same we have heard before it does not prove identity or eternity, but only that they belong to the same species as the letters we have heard before. See S.D.S., xii.