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Speculations in the Medical Schools (CH. person (āpta). As an analogy he refers to Ayur-veda, the validity of which is due to the fact that it has been composed by trustworthy persons (āpta). That the medical instructions of the Ayurveda are regarded as valid is due to the fact that they are the instructions of trustworthy persons (yato yatrāptavādatram tatra prāmānyam iti vyāptir gļhyate). But it may be argued that the validity of Ayur-veda is not because it has for its author trustworthy persons, but because its instructions can be verified by experience (nanvāyur-vedādau prāmānyam pratyakṣādi-samvādāt pratipannam nāpta-prāmānyāt). Jayanta in reply says that the validity of Ayurveda is due to the fact of its being composed by trustworthy persons; and it can be also verified by experience. He argues also that the very large number of medicines, their combinations a applications, are of such an infinite variety that it would be absolutely impossible for any one man to know them by employing the experimental methods of agreement and difference. It is only because the medical authorities are almost omniscient in their knowledge of things that they can display such superhuman knowledge regarding diseases and their cures, which can be taken only on trust on their authority. His attempts at refuting the view that medical discoveries may have been carried on by the applications of the experimental methods of agreement and difference and then accumulated through long ages are very weak and need not be considered here.
The fourth Veda, known as the Atharva-Veda or the BrahmaVeda, deals mainly with curatives and charms?. There is no reason to suppose that the composition of this Veda was later than even the earliest Rg-Vedic hymns; for never, probably, in the history
1 Some of the sacred texts speak of four Vedas and some of three Vedas, e.g. "asya mahato bhūtasya nihśvasitam etad rg-vedoyajur-vedaḥ sāma-vedo 'tharvangirasah," Brh. II. 4. Io speaks of four Vedas; again " Yam rşayas trayī-vido viduh rcaḥ sāmāni yajūmsi," Taittirīja-brāhmaṇa, 1. II. 1. 26 speaks of three Vedas. Sāyaņa refers to the Mimāmsā-sūtra, 11. 1. 37"seşe Yajuh-sabdah" and says that all the other Vedas which are neither Rk nor Sāma are Yajuş (Sāyana's Upodghāta to the Atharva-Veda, p. 4, Bombay edition, 1895). According to this interpretation the Atharva-Veda is entitled to be included within Yajuş, and this explains the references to the three Vedas. The Atharva-Veda is referred to in the GopathaBrāhmana, II. 16 as Brahma-Veda, and two different reasons are adduced. Firstly, it is said that the Atharva-Veda was produced by the ascetic penances of Brahman; secondlyit is suggested in the Gopatha-Brahmāņa that all Atharvaņic hymns are curative (bhesaja), and whatever is curative is immortal, and whatever is immortal is Brahman—"Ye'tharvāṇas tad bhesajam, yad bhesajam tad amptam, yad amstam tad Brahma." Gopatha-brāhmaṇa, III. 4. See also Nyāya-mañjari, pp. 250-261.
