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Apaurusheya ( Sanskrit: अपौरुषेय, apauruṣeya, lit. means "not of a man"), meaning "not of human" [1] or "impersonal, authorless", is a term used to describe the Vedas, the earliest scripture in Hinduism. [2] [3]
Apaurusheya shabda ("impersonal words, authorless") is an extension of apaurusheya which refers to the Vedas and numerous other texts in Hinduism. [2] [4]
Apaurusheya is a central concept in the Vedanta and Mimamsa schools of Hindu philosophy. These schools accept the Vedas as svatah pramana ("self-evident means of knowledge"). The Mimamsa school asserts that since the Vedas are composed of words ( shabda) and the words are composed of phonemes, the phonemes being eternal, the Vedas are also eternal.[ citation needed] To this, if asked whether all words and sentences are eternal, the Mimamsa philosophers reply that the rules behind combination of phonemes are fixed and pre-determined for the Vedas, unlike other words and sentences. The Vedanta school also accepts this line of argument.[ citation needed]