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xx] Epistemology according to Meghanādāri and others 237 of pramāņa as knowledge leading to a behaviour tallying with facts naturally means the inclusion of valid memory within it. An uncontradicted memory is thus regarded as valid means of knowledge according to the Rāmānuja system?. Venkața urges that it is wrong to suppose the illicit introduction of memory as the invariable condition of illusion, for in such illusory perception as that of yellow conch-shell, there is manifestly no experience of the production of memory. The conch-shell directly appears as yellow. So in all cases of illusions the condition that is invariably fulfilled is that one thing appears as another, which is technically called anyathā-khyāti. But it may as well be urged that in such an illusion as that of the conch-shell--silver, the reason why the conch-shell appears as the silver is the non-apprehension of the distinction between the subconscious image of the silver seen in shops and the perception of a shining piece before the eyes, technically called akhyāti. Thus, in all cases of illusion, when one thing appears as another there is this condition of the non-apprehension of the distinction between a memory image and a percept. If illusions are considered from this point of view, then they may be said to be primarily and directly due to the aforesaid psychological fact known as akhyāti. Thus, both these theories of illusion have been accepted by Rāmānuja from two points of view. The theory of anyathā-khyāti appeals directly to experience, whereas the akhyāti view is the result of analysis and reasoning regarding the psychological origin of illusions. The other theory of illusion (yathārtha-khyāti), which regards illusions also as being real knowledge, on the ground that in accordance with the pañcī-karana theory all things are the result of a primordial admixture of the elements of all things, is neither psychological nor analytical but is only metaphysical, and as such does not explain the nature of illusions. The illusion in such a view consists in the fact or apprehension of the presence of such silver in the conch-shell as can be utilized for domestic or ornamental purposes, whereas the metaphysical explanation only justifies the perception of certain primordial elements of silver in the universal admixture of the elements of all things in all things.
smyti-mätrā-pramanatvam na yuktam iti vaksyate abādhita-smriter loke pramāņatva-parigrahāt.
Nyāya-parisuddhi, p. 38. 2 idam rajatam anubhavāmi'ty ekatvenai'va pratiyamānāyāḥ pratiter grahana-smaraņā-tmakatvam anekatuam ca yuktitah sādhyamānam na pratitipatham ārohati. Nyāya-sära, p. 40.
