Comparative Study of Indian Science

Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: C S Mallinath

Page 79

12. Pramanabhasa. Pramanabhasa or fallacy with regard to Pramana means literally a form of Knowledge which looks like Pramana but is not really so. According to the Jaina philosophers, such fallacious Knowledge may be of 4 kinds according as they relate to the nature or the number or the object or the fruit of the Pramanas. These are as follows :-A. Svarupabhasa - This fallacy consists in conceiving the Pramanas in a different way from that of the Jainas who define it as “ certain Knowledge, regarding the Self and the non-self." Accordingly, those definitions of the Pramana will be fallacious which consider it to consist in (1) unconscious processes (the Nyaya school), (2) a form of Knowledge which cannot reveal the self (the Mimansaka school), (3) a form of Knowledge which reveals the Self only (the Vedanta school), (4) undetermined perception (the Buddhist school) or finally in (5) Superimposition (ordinary people). Going into details, we may describe the fallacies with regard to the Pratyaksha in this way. (1) Fallacies with regard to the Samvyavaharika Pratyaksha (a) one sees in Cloud, a city of the celestials ---Indriya-nibandhanaPratyakshabhasa. (6) One feels pain in pleasure, Anindriya-nibandhana-Pratyakshabhasa. (2) Fallacies with regard to the Paramarthika Paratyaksha- A royal