---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: shabda
title: Śabda
iast: Śabda
devanagari: शब्द
description: Verbal testimony, the pramāṇa yielding knowledge from the statement of a trustworthy speaker (āpta), its validity resting on the speaker's reliability; NOT scripture-inerrant-by-authorship, NOT mere hearsay, NOT the Śabda-Brahman of sound-metaphysics, NOT the Mīmāṃsā intrinsically-valid Veda.
darshana:
- Nyāya
school_scope: Nyāya grounds the authority of testimony, including the Veda, in the reliability of a trustworthy speaker (for the Veda, Īśvara), making its validity extrinsic and speaker-dependent. Mīmāṃsā holds the Veda authorless and intrinsically valid; dharma-foundation treats śabda as primordial sound and Śabda-Brahman. Three distinct senses; keep them apart.
text_source: Nyāya Sūtra 1.1.7
tags:
- shabda
- testimony
- apta
- nyaya
- pramana
not:
- term: scripture valid intrinsically by its authorship or eternality
  why: For Nyāya even the Veda is valid because it issues from a trustworthy speaker (Īśvara), not because words are eternal or self-certifying. This is the opposite of the Mīmāṃsā view that the Veda is authorless (apauruṣeya) and intrinsically valid. In Nyāya, testimony's authority is always the reliability of a speaker.
  instead: 'Define śabda as knowledge from a trustworthy speaker''s statement: it is valid when the āpta knows the matter and reports it truly; the Veda counts as śabda because its speaker (Īśvara) is supremely reliable, not because it is authorless.'
- term: hearsay or unverified report
  why: Ordinary rumour is not a pramāṇa. Śabda requires an āpta, one who has direct knowledge of the matter and the honesty to state it. The whole account turns on the speaker's competence and truthfulness; absent those, the words yield no knowledge.
- term: Śabda-Brahman / sound as ultimate reality
  why: 'In dharma-foundation and sound-metaphysics, śabda names primordial vibration and the Absolute as sound. Here śabda is a narrowly epistemic term: language as a source of knowledge through a reliable speaker. Same word, wholly different register; do not merge them.'
related:
- /concepts/pramana.md
- /concepts/upamana.md
- /concepts/anumana.md
- /concepts/ishvara.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Śabda -- शब्द

**Not:** intrinsic scripture, hearsay, Shabda-Brahman

## What It Actually Means

Śabda, verbal testimony, is Nyāya's fourth pramāṇa: knowledge produced by understanding the statement of a trustworthy person (āpta), one who knows the matter and reports it truthfully. Its cognitive machinery is the sentence and the hearer's grasp of word-meanings and their connection; its epistemic warrant is the speaker's reliability. This reliabilist grounding is the crux. Nyāya does treat the Veda as authoritative, but for a reason opposite to Mīmāṃsā's: the Veda is valid because it has a supremely reliable author, Īśvara, not because it is authorless and self-validating. So śabda in Nyāya is neither blind deference to a text nor loose hearsay; it is a disciplined account of how the words of a competent, honest speaker transmit knowledge. It must also be kept clear of the entirely different śabda of sound-metaphysics, where the word names primordial vibration rather than testimony.

## Audience Metaphor

A verdict from an expert witness under oath is knowledge you can act on, not because the transcript is sacred but because the witness actually knows and is bound to tell the truth. Change the witness to a stranger repeating a rumour and the same words give you nothing. Śabda is testimony-from-a-reliable-knower; its force lives entirely in the credibility of the one who speaks.

## Citations

1. Nyāya Sūtra 1.1.7 (definition of śabda) and 2.1.68 on āpta -- see [references/nyaya-sutra.md](../references/nyaya-sutra.md)
2. Vātsyāyana, Nyāya Bhāṣya, testimony grounded in the reliable speaker -- see [references/nyaya-bhashya.md](../references/nyaya-bhashya.md)
3. Cross-bundle: śabda as primordial sound in dharma-foundation v0.1 -- a different sense entirely; kept distinct
