Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 79

Śramana Tradition
proves precisely nothing except the failure of his memory. If someone fails to remember something it does not follow that something does not exist. On the other hand, one cannot universalize the proposition that no one remembers the author of the Vedic texts since there is no way of substantiating such a universal proposition. What is more, the so-called Abhāva Pramana does not apply in such cases since that Pramāṇa functions only when all the other five Pramaņas fail to apply. In the present case the Vedas themselves speak of their author. The various Vedic recensions are thus ascribed to different sages like Kanva etc. Decisive, again, is the consideration that the Vedas are compositions like other human compositions. Pauruşeyo vedaḥ racanãvatvāt bhāratädivat padavākyātmakatvādvā |' The argument that Vedic composition is wholly distinctive and singular is difficult to countenance. Wherein lies the distinctiveness of Vedic composition - in its unpronunciability, harshness of sounds, deviation in grammatical usage, use of uncommon rhythm and metre, propounding of supersensuous meanings, or having magical power? Now none of these features is superhuman since they can all be paralled in human compositions. In particular, the magical character of Vedic utterances (mahaprabhāvopetamantrayuktatva) is in no way different from the similar power of non-Vedic mantras, which is all due to the will of some superior or powerful person.
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The doctrine of the apauruşeyatva of the Vedas was not accepted by the Naiyayikas also who concurred with the Buddhists and the Jainas in rejecting the doctrine of the eternity of the word and the authorlessness of the Veda. But the Naiyayikas like all the other Brahmanical schools accepted the authority of the Vedas. For the Naiyayikas the authoritative character of the Vedic texts rested on the assumption that they are texts revealed by God. It is here that the Jainas and the Buddhists combined again to oppose the doctrine of theism as much as the authenticity of the Vedas.
The idea of God arose in the Vedic tradition in terms of the worship of His visible or manifest forms in nature. As the greatest poet of India prayed, 'pratyakṣābhistanubhiravatu vastabhiraṣtābhirisaḥ. This was, in effect, the Vedic view. The visible deities of the Vedic age hardly required any proof. In the later Vedic age the many gods