Indian Logic Part 03

Author(s): Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Sanskrit Sanskriti Granthmala

Page 36

VALIDITY OF VEDAS...
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point being that even a soui veing in fact ubiquitous does not move about from one place to another but is just associated with one body now with another body at a later time." As can be seen, this side of the objection is not much important, though in the Mimāṁsā literature it was a consideration of this side that led to an elaborate treatment of the doctrine of soul. Still less important are two more objections raised by the present opponent who first says that several Vedic statements are mutually contradictory and then that several others involve a repetition; thus having first enjoined that a rite has to be performed before dawn, after dawn, at the time of dawn a Vedic passage afterwards condemns one who performs a rite before dawn, after dawn, at the time of dawn.'6 Similarly, one Vedic injunction lays down that the first and the last of certain eleven hymns have to be recited thrice each." In defence Jayanta pleads that the first case involves no self-contradiction inasmuch as what is condemned here is the practice of making the resolve to perform a rite at one particular time and actually performing it at another;18 similarly, he pleads that the second case involves no undue repetition inasmuch as the ritual concerned requires fifteen recitations while hymns available are only eleven, so that fifteen recitations are made possible by reciting thrice each the first and the last of these eleven hymns."
Then Jayanta undertakes what we call a defence of the validity of each single Vedic utterance. In fact, however, this is a rather odd sort of undertaking divided into three parts as follows: : (1) a part considering as to what is the practical utility of Vedic descriptions,
(2) a part considering as to whether or not one should take into consideration the meaning of the hymns recited in the course of a ritual,
(3) a part considering as to whether the name given to a ritual is just conventional or it contains a meaning.
Obviously, the three parts raise three very different sorts of issues but they all somehow throw light on a Vedic ritualist's thought-world. So let us take up these parts one by one.
About Vedic description the opponent first says that they are often enigmatic in their import. For example one says 'He wept and the weeping is what constitutes Rudra's Rudra-hood',20 another "The mind is thief, the speech is liar',! a third 'In the day-time they saw