Sūtra 6.1.1 (The Veda is a work of intelligence, and therefore, authoritative)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 6.1.1:

बुद्धिपूर्वा वाक्यकृतिर्वेदे ॥ ६.१.१ ॥

buddhipūrvā vākyakṛtirvede || 6.1.1 ||

buddhi-pūrvā—preceded by understanding; vākya-kṛtiḥ—composition of sentences; . vede—in the Veda.

1. In the Veda the composition of sentence has been preceded by understanding.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)

The subject of the sixth book is the examination of dharma, virtue or merit, and adharma, vice or demerit, which are the root causes of transmigration, Dharma and adharma, again, have to be supposed on the strength of such precepts and prohibitions as “Let him who desire heaven, perform sacrifices.” “Let him not eat tobacco,” etc., and their existence depends upon the authoritativeness of these perceptive and prohibitive texts. And that authoritativeness can be possible or arise from the speaker’s previously possessing the attribute characterised as knowledge of the meaning of the sentences as corresponding to objective reality since authoritativeness per se is excluded. Hence the author, in the first place, commerces the demonstration of the attribute which clothes the Veda with authoritativeness.

[Read sūtra 6.1.1 above]

‘Vākya-kṛtiḥ,’ i.e., composition of sentences, is ‘buddhi-pūrvā,’ i.e., preceded by the speaker’s knowledge of the meaning of the sentences as corresponding to objective reality because it is composition of sentences, like composition by ourselves and others of such sentences as “There lie five fruits on the bank of the river.’

‘In the Veda’ means in the aggregate of sentences. Here the composition of aggregated sentences is the pakṣa (i.e., the subject of the conclusion). It cannot be otherwise established (as authoritative), namely by the characteristic of being preceded by the understanding of ourselves and others; for, in such instances as “Let him who desires heaven, perform sacrifices,” the fact that performance of sacrifices is a means of attaining the desired object, or that securing heaven is an effect, is beyond the reach of our and others’ understanding. It is, therefore, proved that the Veda, as an effect, has for its antecedent an Absolute or Independent Person. And the characteristic of the Veda is that, while the subject of its meaning is not certain knowledge produced by proof other than the proof supplied by words and all that which depends upon them, it is word of which the proof or authority is not produced by knowledge of the meaning of sentences produced by words.—1.

Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:

(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)

By this aphorism, the doctrine of Mīmāṃsā philosophy, that word is eternal, is refuted.