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APPENDIX I 149
sources of knowledge must be excommunicated by the virtuous as a sceptic and reviler of the Vedas …..13. To those who are seeking a knowledge of duty, the Sruti is the supreme authority.”
The fourth point relates to the claim put forth in the Puranas for precedence over the Vedas in the order of creation.
The Vayu Purana says [1] :
“First of all the Shastras, the Purana was uttered by Brahma. Subsequently the vedas issued from his mouth”.
The Matsya Purana not only claims priority of creation for the Puranas as against the Vedas, but also the qualities of eternity and identity with sound, which was once predicated of the Vedas alone. It says [2] :
“Pitamaha (Brahma), first of all the immortals, took shape; then the Vedas with their Angas and Upangas (appendages and minor appendages), and the various modes of their textual arrangement, were manifested. (3) The Purana, eternal, formed of sound, pure, extending to the length of a hundred crores of verses, was the first of the Sastras which Brahma uttered; and afterwards the Vedas, issued from his mouth; and also the Mimansa and the Nyaya with its eightfold system of proofs. (5) From him (Brahma), who was devoted to the study of the Vedas, and desirous of offspring, sprang mindborn sons, so called because they were at first created by his mind.”
The Bhagwat Purana claims equality of authority with the Vedas. It says:
“(Bramharatra) declared the Purana called the Bhagavata, which stands on an equality with the Veda.”
The Brahma-Vaivartta Purana has the audacity to claim superiority over the Vedas. It says:
“That about which venerable sage, you have inquired, and which you desire, is all known to me, the essence of the Puranas, the preeminent Brahma-Vaivarta, which refutes the errors of the Puranas and Upapuranas, and the Vedas.”
This survey discloses a number of riddles in regard to the Vedas. In addition to the three riddles namely why did the Brahmins insist that the Vedas were eternally pre-existing, that they were non-man, non-God made, that they were infallible. There are other riddles regarding the Vedas which are equally puzzling—The Vedas at one time did not have any precedence or infallibility. Why did the
1 Quoted in Muir Sanskrit Texts Vol. III p. 27.
2 Ibid., p. 28.