Comparative Study of Indian Science

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

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consist of such Sphota sounds which are essentially related to the eternal truths and are consequently eternal (Vide Mimansaka-Sutras, 1. 1.5: 20)
The extreme opposite of the above form of Mimansaka dogmatism is the Buddhist theory according to which, sounds or words are not only not eternal but they have no real relation whatsoever to the objects they are said to signify. Sounds and objects signified by them cannot be said to be identical in essence. You cannot moreover, say that the sounds are caused by the objects signified by them; nor can you say that the latter are caused by the former. How is it then, that we attach particular meanings to the words and say that this word signifies this object and that, that? According to the Buddhist theory of Apoha or Extrajection, sound is a sensation; its matter also a sensation, consisting just in the negative idea that previous and other sensations do not exist for us at the time. Our mind has a tendency to build up a positive idea and to locate the matter of sound outside of and external to ourselves. It is this mysterious principle of mental Apoha or Extrajection,-the tendency to reify the psychoses that is responsible for the attribution of meanings to words,
The Mimansaka and the Buddhist theories of sound are thus extreme opposites between which the Nyaya,