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.
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