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FOREWORD
OXLIX
7. The Buddhists cannot establish the non-eternity of sound by their reasons, because we have already proved that if the sound were not eternal the sentences would have failed to express their meanings, because the sound does not exist until that moment when the expression of the meaning is obtained.
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8. As the letters and words are eternal, so also the sentences should be accepted as eternal, as they also always express their meanings. Though some sentences are used to express the wishes of their author, such as the Guna or Vṛddhi of Panini, the same is not the case with the Vedas, because they have no author and because it is beyond human power to witness the things described in them, such as the heaven, sacrifices, etc.
9. The study of the Vedas in the case of a disciple must be preceded by a study of them by the preceptor, but still it may be called study. Similarly with the Bharata, with the difference that we remember its author as being Vyasa while for the Vedas no author can be known.
Refutation.
1. The Vedas cannot be recognized as an authority. The knowledge derived from the Vedas is invalid, because the Vedas have no author whose excellent qualifications would make him say the truth. They having no author is no reason for proving the validity of their statements. If by reason of having no author or of indestructibity alone you want to establish the eternality of the Vedas, then the lotus of the sky must also be held as eternal.
2. The inference which is caused by the reason endowed with the threefold qualities and which is connected with the things that are to be proved by reason rather than by the sound, is certainly a superior authority to the Vedas, which are nothing but sounds. If you take these sounds as proved by perception, then why not take the words uttered by human beings also as proved by perception?
3. Sound cannot be accepted as omnipresent, because it is clear that sounds are produced in different places and in different
