Comparative Study of Indian Science

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: C S Mallinath

Page 73

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The last step in criticism was taken by the Buddhists and the Charvaka sophists who repudiated the authority of the Agama. “The Vedas are untruc, tainted as they are with falsity, contradiction and tautology (1. 2. 56, Nyaya-Sutra)." Accordingly, as we have seen already, the Charvakas looked upon sensuous perception as the only source of knowledge; the Agama is not a source of true knowledge. The Jainas agree with the Charvakas and the Buddhists in their criticism of the doctrine of the Vedic infallibility, But they would point out that as there is no inconsistency and false teaching in the Jaina Vedas and as these emanate from the Being who saw the Truth face to face and taught as he saw it--the Jaina Agama is an important and infallible source of knowledge.
The theory of Sound is connecled with the doctrine of the Agama. The Scripture is nothing but a peculiarly arranged mass of letters or sounds and if these sounds be supposed to be non-eternal, the Scripture itself becomes non-eternal. And further, if the sounds be not essentially related to the nature of objects, they cannot infallibly express the truths underlying them, so that the Vedas become unreliable. Accordingly the Mimansakas make a distinction between Dhvani or ordinary sound and Sphota or the eternal and the unchangeable Sound. The Vedas