वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

PRIMITIVE ARYAN CULTURE AND RELIGION. 449 the makers of the Vedic hymns; and the personal designa- tion of some Shâkhâs, branches or recensions of Vedas, as Taittirîya, Kâṭhaka, &c., as well as the statements in the Vedic hymns, which say that so and so has made or generated such and such a hymn, are understood to mean that the particu- lar Shâkhâ or hymn was perceived, and only perceived, by the particular Ṛiṣhi or poet. It is not, however, till we come to the works of the authors and expositors of the different schools of Hindu philosophy (darshanas) that we find the doctrine of the eternity of the Vedas subjected to a searching examination; and, as remarked by Dr. Muir, one who reads the discussions of these writers cannot fail to be struck "with the acuteness of their reasoning, the logical precision with which their arguments are presented, and the occasional live- liness and ingenuity of their illustrations."* They all bear wit- ness to the fact that so far as tradition went,—an unbroken tradition of great antiquity,—there was no remembrance of the Vedas having been ever composed by or ascribed to any human author; and taking into consideration the learning and the piety of these scholars, their testimony must be regarded as an unimpeachable proof of the existence of such a tradition, which was considered ancient several centuries before the Christian era. But though a tradition whose high antiquity can be so well established deserves to be seriously considered in our investigations regarding the character of the Vedas, yet it is, after all, a negative proof, showing, it may be urged, nothing more than no human author of the Veda has been known from times beyond the memory of all these ancient scholars. Jaimini, the author of Mimâmsâ Sutras, therefore, further deduces (I, 1, 5) the eternity of the Vedas from the re- lation or connection between words and their meanings, which he holds to be eternal (autpattika) and not conventional. 'A word is defined to be an aggregate of letters in a particular

• Muir, O. S. T., Vol. III, p. 58. 29