Chapter 5g - Nirvikalpaka Pratyakṣa according to Kumārila Bhaṭṭa

Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, the founder of the Bhaṭṭa school of Mīmāṃsā, says,

“samyagarthe ca saṃ śabdo duṣprayoganivāraṇaḥ.”^[1]

It means that the right intercourse is the intercourse of the sense-organs untainted by defects with real objects.

Illusions are produced by wrong intercourse. Therefore, according to him, pratyakṣa is a direct cognition which is the result of the right functioning of the sense-organ with reference to their objects, and which is free from defects.^[2] Mīmāṃsā broadly agrees with Nyāya in its view of pratyakṣa. The self comes into contact with manas, the internal organ, which comes into contact with the sense-organs, which have right intercourse with real external objects. The olfactory, the gustatory, the visual, the tactual, and the auditory organ, composed of earth, water, light, air, and space or ether, are the external organs. The Naiyāyikas regards the auditory organ as ether limited by the ear-hole, while the Mīmāṃsakas regards it as space limited by the ear-hole. The external sense-organs can produce perceptions of odour, taste, colour, sound, etc., when they are supervised by the manas, which is the organ of internal pratyakṣa. It is the organ of the pratyakṣa of cognition, pleasure, pain, desire, etc., which are the qualities of the self. The sense-object intercourse has the capacity to manifest a sensible object. Pratyakṣa can apprehend sensible objects only, but it cannot apprehend super-sensible objects like dharma.^[3]

The latter Bhaṭṭas i.e., Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa (16^th century A.D) in his Mānameyodaya defines pratyakṣa as:

“indriyasannikarṣajaṃ pramāṇaṃ pratyakṣam”^[4]

I.e. pratyakṣa is the valid cognition produced by the contact of a sense-organ with an object.

The Bhaṭṭa School accepts pratyakṣa is of two stages, viz., nirvikalpaka and savikalpaka pratyakṣa. Of these the first stage is called nirvikalpaka and the second stage is called savikalpaka pratyakṣa. The nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa of a thing is its perception at the first moment of the association of the senses and their objects.

Thus Kumārila defines nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa as:

“asti hyālocanaṃ jñānaṃ prathamaṃ nirvikalpakam. bālamūkādivijñāna-sadṛśaṃ suddhavastujam. na viśeṣo na sāmānyaṃ tadānīm anubhūyate. tayor ādhārabhūtā tu vyaktirevāvasīyate.”^[5]

It means that the cognition that appears first is a mere ālocana or simple pratyakṣa, called nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa pertaining to the object itself pure and simple, and resembling the cognitions that the new-born infant has of things around himself. In this cognition neither the specific characters nor the generic characters are apprehended by it, but the individual object only, which is their substrate, is apprehended.

Pārthasārathi Miśra (900 A.D) defines nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa as:

“avivikta-sāmānya-viśeṣavibhāgaṃ saṃmugdha-vastu-mātrā-gocaram ālocana-jñānam”^[6]

I.e. nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa is a non-relational apprehension of an object only with its generic and specific characters, which cannot distinguish them from one another. It cannot apprehend the generic characters as generic and the specific characters as specific. It apprehends an object with its various properties, viz., genus, quality, and name etc. unrelated to each other just after the senseobject intercourse. It apprehends a multiform object with its various properties in a nonrelational manner. There is no apprehension of a subject-predicate relation in it.^[7]

On the other hand, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa defines nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa as:

“indriyasannikarṣānantarameva dravyādi-svarūpamātrāvagāhi śabdānugamasūnyam jat sammugdhajñānaṃ jāyate tat viśiṣṭakalpanābhāvāt nirvirkalpakamityucyate.”^[8]

It means that the immediately after the contact with the senses, there arises a confused cognition devoid of verbal accompaniment, and comprehending the bare existence of substances etc., and this is called nirvikalpaka, because of the nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa of a thing as qualified.

Bhaṭṭa Mīmāṃsā accepts that nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa leads to the second stage of pratyakṣa i.e. to the savikalpaka pratyakṣa. According to Kumārila, savikalpaka pratyakṣa presents the generic and specific qualities of the individual. It is based on the nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa where the genus, the name, and the qualifying properties are implicitly apprehended. In other words, savikalpaka pratyakṣa is relational apprehension of the generic characters of an object as generic, and of its specific characters as specific. It contains an element of recollection of similar and dissimilar objects, and apprehends the community of its object with other similar objects and its distinction from other dissimilar objects. It apprehends an object and its generic and specific properties in a subject-predicate relation.^[9]

On the other hand, Pārthasārathi Miśra defines savikalpaka pratyakṣa as:

“savikalpakaṃ tvekaikākāraṃ jātyādikaṃ vivicya viṣayīkaroti”^[10]

I.e. savikalpaka pratyakṣa is apprehension of an object with its various forms such as genus, substance, quality, action, and the name as related to, and distinguished from, one another. It apprehends its object and its properties in a subject-predicate relation.

Again he says,

“jātidravyaguṇakriyānāmabhiḥ pañcadhā savikalpena vikalpyate”^[11]

I.e. savikalpaka pratyakṣa apprehends an object as belonging to a particular class, as being qualified by another substance, as being endued with a particular quality, as doing a particular action, and as bearing a particular name.

Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa defines savikalpaka pratyakṣa as:

“yattu tadanantaraṃ śabdasmaraṇasahakṛtaṃ jātyādiviśiṣṭavasthuviṣayaṃ raktohayaṃ ghaṭohayaṃ ityādi vyaktavijñānaṃ tat savikalpakam.”^[12]

It means that immediately after the nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa a clear cognition like ‘this is red’, ‘this is a pot’, etc., having as its object a thing qualified by class etc., and assisted by recollection of words, is produced; and this is called savikalpaka pratyakṣa.

Both the Prabhākara Mīmāṃsā and the Bhaṭṭa Mīmāṃsā accept that nirvikalpaka pratyakṣa leads to the second stage of pratyakṣa i.e. to the savikalpaka pratyakṣa.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ślokavārttika, iv. 38.

[2]:

Ibid. iv. 38-39.

[3]:

Śāstradīpikā, pp. 35-36.

[4]:

Mānameyadaya, ii. 1, p. 8.

[5]:

Ślokavārttika, iv. 112, 113.

[6]:

Śāstradīpikā, p. 40.

[7]:

“nirvikalpam anekākāraṃ vastu saṃmugdhaṃ gṛhnāti”.—-Ibid. p. 41.

[8]:

Mānameyadaya, ii. 14, p. 17.

[9]:

Ślokavārttika, iv. 120-125.

[10]:

Śāstradīpikā, p. 41.

[11]:

Ibid. p. 41.

[12]:

Mānameyadaya, ii. 14, p. 17.