Sk Nur Upsar
Volume-XII, Issue-II, January 2024
Volume-XII, Issue-II, January 2024 | ||
Published Online: 31.01.2024 | Page No: 283-289 | |||
The Nyaya Concept of
Alaukika Pratyaksha: A Critical Analysis
Sk Nur Upsar, Assistant Professor
Dept. of Philosophy, THLH Mahavidyalay, Mallarpur, Birbhum, West Bengal, India | |
In the Nyaya Philosophy, perception (Pratyaksha) has been aptly regarded as the most fundamental of four kinds of source of knowledge (Pramana), viz., Pratyksha or perception, Anumana or inference, Upamana or comparison, and Sabda or testimony. One of the justifications of such a view is that although perception is not the only source of knowledge, it is the basis of all the other sources of knowledge, in so far as Inference, Comparison and Testimony depend upon perception. ‘Perception’ has been defined in different ways by the different Naiyayikas. The old school of the Naiyayikas did not generally distinguish between normal or Laukika and supernormal or Alaukika from of perception, although passing references to the supernormal form of perception found in some of the earlier texts on Nyaya (particularly in Jayanta Bhatta’s ‘Nyayamanjuri; and Vacaspati Misra’s ‘Nyayavartika-tatparyaatika’). It was Gangesa the founder of the New School of the Naiyayikas, who, for the first time in his ‘Tattavacintamani’, systematically distinguished between Laukika and Alaukika Pratyksha. In order to clarify the Alaukik Pratyaksha in Nyaya Philosophy it has been mentioned that here we have no direct contact sense with objects. There are three kinds of extra-ordinary perception (alaukika pratyaksa) produced by three kinds of extra-ordinary contact (alukika sannikarṣa) viz, sāmānya-lakṣaṇa, jñāna-lakṣaṇa and Yogaja. In order to clarify the first one, it has been said that when by the perception of particular object, we do the perception of universal. For example, one has the Alaukika Pratyaksha of all the cows of all places and times through the knowledge of the class- essence ‘cowness in a particular cow, conjoined with eye. In Jnana Lakshna Pratyaksha the perception of an object by means of sense organ which is not ordinally associated with it, becomes supernormally associated with it. Through memory-knowledge of the same, perceived previously by another sense. Such a perception takes the form of ‘I see a piece of fragrance of sandalwood’. Here the visual perception of the fragrance of sandalwood is a case of Jnana Lakshna Pratyaksha, because ordinarily the perception of fragrance is not visual, but olfactory. Yogaja Pratyaksha, the perception of all objects of all places and times. In Indian Philosophical tradition so many such Yogis have been accepted who have done this divine perception. In this connection it may be mention that according to Nyaya, while Laukika Pratyaksha may be either determinate or indeterminate, Alaukik pratyaksha is always determinate, because it gives us explicit and definite knowledge. I would like to discuss critically the details of this striking view in my paper. | |
Keywords: Pratyaksha, Pramana, Naiyayikas, Laukika Pratyaksha, Alaukik pratyaksha, Samanya Lakshna, Jnana Lakshna and Yogaja etc. | |