Cause of Creation

[Vidyasankar]

On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 04:50:33 -0800, kuntimaddi sadananda
<kuntimaddisada at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>Ravi - there are several conceptual problems as well as
>Inconsistencies with scriptural statements that arise.  Shree Madhava
>       uses several rare puraaNaas to justify his analysis. Nobody
>can find
>those references nor available anywhere. Validity of a pramaaNa is
>      based on one ability to cross check that independently.

It is true that Madhva refers to texts that are totally unknown to others.
However, your last sentence about the validity of a pramANa is not
correct.

Generally speaking, it is quite possible that texts are lost over a period
of time. The fact that one is unable, at a particular time and a
particular place, to check the said text(s) does not take away from or add
to validity per se. Given that the charge of making up quotations from
possibly non-existent texts has been laid at Madhva's door for a long time
now, it is enough to state that the said texts are not part of shAstra. We
do not have to come up with a new criterion for validity, namely one's
ability to cross-check the reference.

Vidyasankar