Nirvikalpaka Pratyaksha (study)
by Sujit Roy | 2013 | 40,056 words
This essay studies Nirvikalpaka Pratyaksha or “Indeterminate perception” primarily based on Nyaya Philosophy and Bauddha philosophy. Pratyaksa is that cognition which is produced by the contact of a sense organ with an object. It is a direct cognition of reality which is not derived through the medium or instrumentality of any other cognition....
Chapter 5f - Nirvikalpaka Pratyakṣa according to Prabhākara
Prabhākara also known as the founder of Prabhākara school of Mīmāṃsā, defines pratyakṣa as:
“sākṣāt pratītiḥ pratyakṣaṃ. sākṣāttvaṃ cāparokṣyaṃ viśadāvabhāsaḥ”.[1]
It means that pratyakṣa is direct apprehension, or immediate cognition, or distinct cognition of an object. It relates to an object, the self, and the cognition. In every act of pratyakṣa of an object, the self, the cognition, and the object are perceived.
This is Prabhākara’s doctrine of triple perception (tripuṭīpratyakṣavāda). In regard to objects, there is the pratyakṣa of substances, qualities, and universals due to the intercourse of the sense-organs with them.[2] With regard to the self, all kinds of cognition as cognitions are apprehended as perceptions by it.[3] Cognitions are self-manifest. But the self and an object are not self-manifest, but are manifested by a cognition, which is self-aware. It does not depend upon any other cognition to manifest it.[4] In the Amṛtakalā Prakaraṇa of Prakaraṇapañcikā Śālikanātha has stated that pratyakṣa is the direct cognition which pertains to apprehend object (meya), the apprehending person (mātā), and to the apprehension itself (miti). In each act of pratyakṣa the idea of each of these comes to be its constituent factor. This definition of pratyakṣa gives us the peculiar theory of tripuṭīpratyakṣa.[5]
Prabhākara School accepts pratyakṣa is of two stages, viz., nirvikalpaka and savikalpaka pratyakṣa.
Prabhākara defines nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa as:
“avikalpā pratyakṣā buddhiḥ svarūpaviṣayā.”[6]
It means that nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa is a simple apprehension of the bare nature of an object.
He says,
“prathamaṃ hi svarūpamātrajñānaṃ dravya-jātiguṇeṣūpapadyate. tacca svānubhavasiddham.”[7]
That is to say, it apprehends a substance, a quality, and a genus as bare existences unrelated to each other just after the sense-object connection.
Its existence is proved by its self-awareness. It does not apprehend an action which is not perceptible. It apprehends generic characters and specific characters, but it cannot cognize them as generic and specific, since it is devoid of recollection. Community is common to many individuals. Individuality is specific to one individual. The inclusiveness of community and the exclusiveness of individuality are not cognized by nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa, because it is devoid of recollection of other similar and dissimilar objects.[8]
Prabhākara defines savikalpaka pratyakṣa as:
“savikalpakantu tatpṛṣṭhabhāvīte eva vastunī sāmānya-viśeṣātmanā pratipadyate. savikalpakantu viśeṣaṇa-viśeṣyabhāvam anugacchati.”[9]
It means that savikalpaka pratyakṣa is the apprehension of the generic and the specific characters of an object as generic and specific respectively. It apprehends its object and its properties in a subject-predicate relation. It apprehends its object as a substance endued with particular qualities and belonging to a certain genus. It contains an element of recollection produced by subconscious impressions. It is immediate apprehension produced by the sense-object contact aided by impressions (saṃskāra).[10]
In other words, Prabhākara[11] believes that savikalpaka pratyakṣa is of a mixed character, and includes in it the element of remembrance, since the other members of the class present themselves to the self by virtue of the impressions which it has had of them. But the element of remembrance does not pertain to the object perceived, but to the others with which it is compared, and so does not affect the validity of the cognition of the object itself.
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
“pratykṣasya viśeṣamāha, meya mātṛpramāsu sā. dravya-jāti-guṇeṣvindriyasaṃyogatthā sā pratyakṣā pratītiḥ”.—-Prakaraṇa pañcikā, p. 52.
[3]:
“sarvāś ca pratītayaḥ svayaṃ pratyakṣāḥ prakāśante tāsāñca yuktam eva svātmani pratyakṣatvam”.—-Prakaraṇa pañcikā, p. 52.
[4]:
[5]:
“sarvavijñānahetuttha mitau ca pramā sākṣātkartittvasāmānyāt pratyakṣatyenasammatā.”—-Prakaraṇa pañcikā, V. 137.
[6]:
Prakaraṇa pañcikā, p. 54.
[7]:
Ibid. p. 54.
[8]:
“sāmānya-viśeṣau pratipadyamānaṃ pratyakṣaṃ prathamam utpadyate, kintu vastvantarānusandhāna-śūnyatayā sāmānya-viśeṣarūpatā na pratīyate”.—-Prakaraṇa pañcikā, p. 5455.
[9]:
Ibid. p. 55.
[11]:
Indian Philosophy, Vol-II, by S. Radhakishnan, p. 353.