Jain Journal 1988 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 27

JAIN JOURNAL
knows itself and the objects,' knowledge produced by this ak sa or the self is known as pratyak$a (or perception). Hence they believe that pratyakşa arises directly without any functions of the sense-organs. Here we find the great difference between the Jainas and the other philosophers. The Jainas think that if the perception produced by the help of the sense-organs only, then the mental and non-sensuous (anindriyaja) perception could not be called as perception."
However, the later Jainas accept the theory that the knowledge which arises from the sense-organs is also called perception. So they classified the perception as sāṁvyāvahārika or the sensuous perception and the mukhya or the non-sensuous perception. Hemacandra, the latter Jaina logician, explains the meaning of the term 'akşa' also as self or as the sense-organs. According to him the perception is either the knowledge which arises from the self or which arises depending on the sense-organs.
According to the Jaina logicians all knowledge, whether it is perception or not is self-revealing, object revealing and conceptual. So the perception has these general characteristics of knowledge, at the same time, some special qualities also. This special quality is 'clarity'. All the Jaina philosophers define perception as 'clear knowledge'.8
There are different opinions about this 'clearness'. The opponents argue that whether it means direct apprehension or the apprehension of the true nature of the object? However, Akalanka, the Jaina logician, suggests that the knowledge which is not based on any other knowledge or which manifests its object without the mediation of any other knowledge is the 'clear knowledge'. What is not clear is not perception,
4 cf; asnute-asnoti va vyapnoti sakala dravya-ksetra-kalabhavan-iti aksa jiva/ Pramana
mimansa 1.1.10, (Hemacandra, Pune, Vir-samvat 2452) p. 13. cf , aksani-ndriyani tani pratigatam tatkarya-tvena tadasritam pratyaksam-iti vyutpattividhanad-iti cet; na ;. ... anindriya pratyaksa atindriya pratyaksa cabhavat tadubhaya pratyaksa sadbhavasya ca pratipadanat/Nyaya-viniscaya-vivarana (Vadiraja Suri, ed. by Jain, Mahendra Kumar, Benaras. 1949) p. 95. cf ; tat-dvi-prakaram sam-vyavaharikam, paramarthikam ca/Pramana-naya-tattvaloka
lankarah (Vadideva Suri, Benaras, Vir-samvat 2437) p. 51. ? cf; asnutevisayam-iti aksam-indriyam ca/Pramana-mimansa (Hemacandra, Pune,
Vir-samvat 2452) p. 13. 8 cf ; (i) visadam pratyaksam]Ibid, p. 16, (ii) spastam pratyaksam/Pramana-naya
tattvalokalamkarah (Vadideva Suri, Benaras, Vir-samvat 2437) p. 50.