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There is a prevailing notion that Vedas are Eternal (Anadi), Uncreated (Apaurusheya) and Universal (Akhila).

Eternal - always/omniscient - past, present and future. Meaning, it cannot refer to things only at a particular time in history.

Uncreated - not composed - by human, animal or deity. Meaning, it cannot refer to things that were created at some point.

Universal - everywhere/omnipresent - India, Earth, Mars or Andromeda. Meaning, it cannot refer to things only at a particular place in universe.

It also means that Vedas must be able to be understood by every being.

Let me illustrate the above with examples.

If a book is written only in বাংলা, we say it is localized to Bengal, not universal place.
If a book talks about Indian independence in 1947, we say it is localized to Indian history, not eternal time.
If Newton's gravity equation F = Gm1m2/R^2, is written using Latin alphabet, we say it was composed by a human because Latin was created sometime in past 5000 years, and we can say it is localized to 1.seeing 2.humans, because blind humans, and dogs, cannot understand Latin.

But if a book contains all languages, and references all events, in all places, at all times, we can say it is universal and eternal and uncreated.

Similarly, the Vedas only contain references to North Indian geography, and not Mayan architecture. They talk about Dasharjana (battle of 10 kings) but not Pokhran nuclear blasts in 1971, or what I will have for lunch 1000 years from now on a Purnima Somvaar. Vedas talk about Brahma, but not Mr. Ramesh Babu my neighbor next door. Vedas are in Sanskrit, not German, and last I checked, lizards didn't understand Sanskrit. Also even I cannot understand Sanskrit when I'm sleeping, cos there is an inherent condition that I must be awake.

Thus, the Vedas are neither Eternal (they don't refer to Somnath mandir which was rebuilt AFTER Vedic period), nor Universal (they don't refer to Mars rover and they don't contain woof woof meow meow sounds), nor Uncreated (they refer to created beings like Brahma or Agni or Indra, who were not present before creation).

How do Shastras give rebuttal to this?

ram
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2 Answers2

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If a text is truly or literally eternal, then it shouldn't make mention of TEMPORAL or HISTORIC occurrences. Otherwise, we can put a time stamp on it.

For example, Rig Veda mentions the Dasharajna battle. This means that those mantras that reference the battle have to be composed after the battle happened by the Rishi of those mantras. OR the Rishi had Bhavishya siddhi and saw the war before it happened, and then composed the verse. But if you read the context of the war in the Vedas, it looks like it was composed after the event happened.

Another analogy is books mentioning world war 2. World war 2 happened in 1940s. So, any book that references WW2 has to logically and chronologically be produced after WW2. So, we can infer that those books were composed AFTER WW2.

Why can't this logic be applied to the Vedas? The Vedas is another text like books on WW2, and hence it can be analyzed in the same way.

On the other hand, certain schools like Mimamsa and Vedanta believe that the actual Vedic VAKYAS are eternal themselves. But in reality what "eternal Veda" means is that the primary knowledge within the Vedas is eternal because the purpose of the Vedas is to talk about eternal things like Brahman, dharma, karma, reincarnation, tri-guna, etc. The historic events like Dasharajna battle, etc. are all subsidiary to the primary knowledge and serve as examples for the eternal worship of Devatas and Brahman.

Ikshvaku
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The Vedas ain't supposed to be understood by every human being, let alone cats, dogs, etc. Only the knowers of the secret aśvattha tree truly understand the Vedas,

BG-15.1: The śastras speak of the imperishable aśvattha tree as having its roots above and branches below; its leaves are the Vedic hymns, and he who knows this is a knower of the Vedas.

Moreover, The Vedas are eternal because the aśvattha tree, which constitutes the Vedas as its leaves, is eternal.

ūrdhvamūlo ’vākśhākha eṣho ’śhvatthaḥ sanātanaḥ (Kaṭhopaniṣhad 2.3.1)
“The aśhvatth tree, with its roots upward and branches downward is eternal.”

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
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