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CHAPTER VIII
ORDINARY PERCEPTION AND ITS OBJECTS 1. Different kinds of perception and the categories of
reality (padārtha)
Taking perception as a general name for all true cognitions produced by sense-object contact the Naiyāyikas distinguish between different kinds of it. First we have the distinction between laukika or ordinary and alaukika or extraordinary perceptions. This distinction depends on the way in which the senses come in contact with their objects. We bave laukika or ordinary perception when there is the usual sense-contact with objects present to sense. In alaukrka perception, lowever, the object is such as is not ordinarily present to sense but is conveyed to sense through an unusual medium. Ordinary perception, again, is of two kinds, namely, external (bāhya) and internal (mānasa). The former is due to the external senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. The latter is brought about by the mind's contact with certain objects. Thus we bave sıx kinds of ordinary perception, namely, the visual, auditory, tactual, gustatory, olfactory and the internal.' In this chapter we propose to consider the objects of external and internal perceptions. The special cases of perception, called alaukika, will be discussed in a later chapter.
According to the Nyāya-Vaisesikas, there are two main types of reality, namely, being and non-being (bhāvo’bhāvasca). Being as a category (padārthu) stands for all that
1 SM., 52, 63.
