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INTRODUCTION
Šāstra is without beginning. But at the same time while the Mimāṁsā doctrine says that the Šāstras or Veda is Apauruşeya (that is not created by anybody) the logicians regard it to be created by somebody, and that somebody is God himself. Any how the Pauruşeya Vāda was cleverly introduced by the logicians in the face of the Apauruşeya Vāda then current. As opposed to these two doctrines there is a third doctrine which appeals to reason more than the first two, and it is this; it accepts the authority of Šāstra, it also accepts the fact that this authority depends upon the worth of the preacher, but it at the same time maintains that this preacher must necessarily be a human being with a body and mouth to speak. From this discussion of various doctrines two points come to the forefront: the first is this that the standard of authority should be made wider, for while the first two doctrines regard the Vedas as their authority, others are equally authorised to regard their Sāstras as reliable which tbey consider as coming from the mouth of a person of anthority The second point is this that if a man is pure and is endowed with supreme intellect he is as good as God Himself, and must be considered as a man of authoritative words. This third doctrine thus revolutionised the views then current. It is not definitely known who first started this doctrine, but this much can be definitely stated that the contribution of Mabā vīra and Buddha age to this doctrine is very great indeed. In course of time, this last doctrine came to be very popular and Sankhya, Ājlvika and others began to regard the founders of other sects as men of authority and began
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