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CONCLUSION In the course of our analysis of representations of Veda and Torah in the brahmanical tradition and the rabbinic and kabbalistic traditions , we have delineated certain structural affinities in the symbol systems of these scriptural traditions_ We have also noted a number of fundamental points of divergence in the conceptions of language that underlie the symbol systems, which are reflected in textual images and conceptions as well as in practices concerning the transmission, study, and appropriation of the texts. While there are significant differences among traditional representations of Veda and Torah, they nevertheless share one important feature that is essential to our understanding of the authority and role of scripture in these traditions: Veda and Torah function in their respective traditions as symbols, and although textuality represents one facet of these multivalent symbols, they are not bound by this textual referent. Veda and Torah transcend their textual boundaries through becoming identified with the Word, which is itself represented as an encompassing category that functions on every level of reality. This Word may find its consummate expression in certain texts-the Vedic mantras or the Sefer Torah-but at the same time it remains a limitless, open-ended category within which can be subsumed potentially all texts, teachings, and practices authorized by the religious elite. The legitimating authority of Veda and Torah in their respective traditions can thus be fully understood only with reference to their function as symbols. In certain strands of these traditions the Word is represented as constitutive of the very nature of the ultimate reality, and the unfoldment of that reality in the phenomenal creation is correspondingly understood as the unfoldment of the divine language. The divine language manifested itself in the realm of forms, which are its most precipitated expressions. However, the divine language is also said to have left another record of itself in the form of a blueprint containing the primordial elements of the divine language . This blueprint is held to have been cognized by or revealed to certain privileged representatives of humanity-the Vedic r~is or Moses and the people of Israel-and was preserved by them in the form of earthly texts, whether oral or written. Certain texts are upheld in each tradition as the core of the cognition/revelationthe oral texts of the Vedic mantras or the written text of the Sefer 395 396 Veda and Torah Torah-and thus it is these texts that are to be preserved with scrupulous precision by the brahmin reciters and Jewish scribal tradition, respectively. The texts of these scriptures are fixed, and not a sound or syllable, word or letter may be altered. In this context Veda and Torah would appear to be bound by their textuality, their referents limited to a circumscribed body of texts. However, that textuality is itself viewed as the concrete embodiment of the divine language and thus points beyond itself to the structures of reality that are encoded within it. Understood in this way, Veda and Torah become multidimensional symbols representing the various levels and structures of reality, with their textuality constituting only one facet of this organic network of significations. These symbols become paradigmatic for their respective traditions because they are invested with transcendent authority. Any text or teaching that wishes to legitimate its authority can do so only by assimilating itself to the authoritative symbols: Veda or Torah. If Veda and Torah were limited to their textual significations as bounded texts-the Vedic Sarphitas and the Sefer Torah-their domain would remain closed. However, because Veda and Torah assume the status of symbols, their domain becomes open-ended and permeable, capable of absorbing a variety of texts and teachings beyond the circumscribed compass of the core texts. The domain ofthe Veda as the Word (brahman/Sabdabrahman) and transcendent knowledge is infinite, and while brahmanical authorities might maintain that the Word found its quintessential expression in the primordial sounds of the Vedic mantras, it is not believed to be limited to that expression. Potentially any text or teaching can claim to be included within the purview of Veda as long as it can establish a connection between itself and the Vedic mantras. This may be accomplished through a variety of strategies. For example, a text might claim that its teachings derive from lost Vedic texts, or establish a genealogy that links its teachings to the Vedas. Alternatively, a text might maintain that its own teachings were part of the primordial cognitions of the !$is, or that...

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