Chapter 5c - Nirvikalpaka Pratyakṣa according to the Grammarian

The Grammarians admit savikalpaka pratyakṣa as the only possible form of pratyakṣa. According to them, there cannot be any nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa in the sense of an unverbalized experience. They hold that we cannot think of things except through word. All objects are inseparably connected with the words by which they are denoted. To cognize a thing is to know it as such and to relate it to a denotative word. Likewise, we can act in relation to a thing only when we know it precisely as of this or that kind, i.e. determine it by means of a class-name. In-fact, all our cognitions are embodied in verbal propositions, such as ‘I know a colour’, ‘it is smell’ and so on. All cognitions being thus inseparable from verbal expressions, there can be no nirvikalpaka cognition.^[1] Therefore, all pratyakṣa is savikalpaka cognition of objects, as qualified by the attributes and is expressible in words.