[Advaita-l] Scholarly Article on Why Vedas are Valid

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

>
> On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 17:04, Rajaram Venkataramani
> <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > I re-read the posts on apaureshyatva of vedas thread. The crux of the
> > mainstream argument is that apaureshyatva, anaditva and validity of the
> > Vedas are axiomatic truths.
> >
>
> I don't know what is written there by other people or what is your ability
> to grasp. But, if you read different posts, then it is clear that
> apauruSheyatva is proved by anumAnam. anAditvam too is proved by anumAnam.
> And validity of any knowledge was tested there. We went to test meaning of
> validity and means to determine it. At least I told all these things in
> different threads(which branched from that) in reply to different people.
> Although people say it was cryptic.


My ability to grasp varies from time to time, the lowest when I am in deep
sleep!  The best argument that I saw was thay they are axiomatic truths
partially defendable through logic as any other axiom such as Euclidean
fifth postulate. I would like to know if there is any logical inference that
they are apaureshya and anadi. If it is based on the axiom of their being
svatah-pramana, then that has to be first established because they are
learnt through pratyaksha and interpreted using anumana. We can believe that
Vedas were handed down through a parampara leading up to Brahma. Someone
else can believe that God created the world in 10 days some 10000 years ago.
Scientist, based on fossil evidence, can choose to believe that life forms
evolved.

My own view, not well constructed yet in my mind, is that the argument
of eternal connection of word and meaning (and hence the object itself) is
the crux. I am happy to hear if there are stronger arguments.