Editing Nyaya (section)

===''Śabda'' (word, testimony)===
''Śabda'' (शब्द) means relying on word, testimony of past or present reliable experts.<ref name=dpsb/><ref name=eliottjag>
*Eliott Deutsche (2000), in Philosophy of Religion : Indian Philosophy Vol 4 (Editor: Roy Perrett), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-8153-3611-2}}, pages 245–248;
*John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-3067-5}}, page 238</ref> Hiriyanna explains ''Sabda-pramana'' as a concept which means testimony of a reliable and trustworthy person (''āptavākya''). The schools of Hinduism which consider it epistemically valid suggest that a human being needs to know numerous facts, and with the limited time and energy available, he can learn only a fraction of those facts and truths directly.<ref name=mhir>M. Hiriyanna (2000), The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-81-208-1330-4}}, page 43</ref>  He must rely on others, his parent, family, friends, teachers, ancestors and kindred members of society to rapidly acquire and share knowledge and thereby enrich each other's lives. This means of gaining proper knowledge is either spoken or written, but through ''Sabda'' (words).<ref name=mhir/> The reliability of the source is important, and legitimate knowledge can only come from the ''Sabda'' of reliable sources.<ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=mhir/> The disagreement between the schools of Hinduism has been on how to establish reliability. Some schools, such as [[Carvaka]], state that this is never possible, and therefore ''Sabda'' is not a proper ''pramana''. Other schools debate means to establish reliability.<ref>P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, {{ISBN|978-94-010-7810-8}}, pages 1–30</ref>

Testimony can be of two types, ''Vaidika'' ([[Vedas|Vedic]]), which are the words of the four sacred Vedas, and ''Laukika'', or words and writings of trustworthy human beings. ''Vaidika'' testimony is preferred over ''Laukika'' testimony.  Laukika-sourced knowledge must be questioned and revised as more trustworthy knowledge becomes available.<ref name="SC-Nyaya">{{cite book |last1=Chatterjee |first1=Satischandra |title=The Nyaya Theory of Knowledge: A Critical Study of Some Problems of Logic and Metaphysics |date=1 January 2016 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-4082-9 |page=319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6b3DwAAQBAJ |access-date=31 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="KLD-LnO">{{cite book |last1=Das |first1=Kanti Lal |last2=Mukherjee |first2=Anirban |title=Language and Ontology |date=2008 |publisher=Northern Book Centre |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-7211-228-8 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CkG_SxiE4-AC |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Aphor-Gau">{{cite book |title=The Aphorisms of the Nyaya Philosophy by Gautama |date=1850 |publisher=Presbyterian Mission Press |location=Allahabad |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4C5Tsfe4bF4C |access-date=31 May 2022}}</ref>