According to Nyāya logic, which of the following statements contains the…

Concept

In a Nyāya inference, the middle term (hetu) must establish the major term (sādhya) in the minor term (pakṣa) through an invariable relation.

A viruddha (contradictory) reason is pervaded by the absence of the proposed major term; therefore, it establishes the opposite of what the inference claims.

Application

1. In the statement “Sound is eternal because it is produced,” the minor term is sound, the proposed major term is eternality, and the middle term is producedness.

2. Whatever is produced is non-eternal because it originates and can cease.

3. Producedness therefore establishes non-eternality in sound—the absence of the proposed eternality—so the reason is viruddha.

Contrast

• The hill has fire because it is knowable uses knowability, a property shared by fiery and non-fiery objects, so the reason is inconclusive rather than contrary to fire.

• Sound is eternal because it is audible uses audibility, a property confined to sound, without an established universal relation to eternality; it does not itself prove non-eternality.

• All things are non-eternal because they are knowable extends knowability across a universal subject without establishing the required relation to non-eternality; it does not present producedness as a reason against eternality.

Cross-check

Replacing the claimed property eternal with non-eternal makes the producedness inference conform to the standard rule: whatever is produced is non-eternal.

Result

The required statement is “Sound is eternal because it is produced.”