5.1. Vasubandhu’s definition of Perception

[Full title: Theory of Perception: Vasubandhu’s definition of Perception]

It is generally believed that Vasubandhu is the first systematic thinker who contributed in the field of epistemology before Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti. Vasubandhu defined prataykṣa in his work Vādavidhi as “tato” rthād vijñānam pratyakṣam,” that is “Perception is a cognition produced from that object”.^[1] He maintains perception is a cognition which arises from that object of which it is indicated as the cognition and not from anything else. For instance: a man sees the object that is fire, which is existing real (svalakṣaṇa) and if it is apprehended, then the knowledge of fire is a kind of perceptual knowledge. Such knowledge has fire as a real thing and it is different from the idea of fire which is the conceptual thing. Bare apprehension of the object without any verbal element is considered as perceptual knowledge. Here, Vasubandhu used the phrase “tato” rthad” to indicate the fact that perception is “without any verbalisation”. Therefore, Vasubandhu can be interpreted as expressing perception as bare knowledge that is caused by the object without any mixing of verbal elements.