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The Seven-plank Epistemological Frame-A Search for its Rationale
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concept and see how the idea evolved from the position of one-plank to the level of the four-plank or catuskoti epistemological frame. The Sārkhyas, with their well known satkāryavāda (some prefer to call it satkāraņavāda) postulated a unitary frame with only sat and no asat at all. Nothing is non-existent to them. The oil exists in an unmanifest state in the sesamum seeds even before they are crushed to separate the oil. Likewise, the seeds exist in the flowers, the flowers in the buds, the buds in the sprouts and so on. How the Sānkhyas would have explained the experience of the 'vikalpa' category, described as "vastuśünya" by their sister-school of Yoga is not quite clear. The early Sankhya writers do not appear to have concerned themselves with the problem of the locus of illusory experiences like sukti-rajata or rajjusarpa or the unsubstantial experience-if it can be called so—of vandhyāputra or śaśasựnga, which existed only as words, with no substance behind them (sabdajñānānupātī).
The Nyāya school which introduced abhāva as a seventh padārtha or category after the earlier position of six padārthas paved the way for a two-plank epistemological frame. It is, however, necessary to remember that it will be an error to equate the abhāva of the Naiyāyikas with the asat of Vedāntic and Buddhist thinkers. All the same, some such equation did exist as is evident from the oft-quoted verse of Bhagavad Gītā, which vaguely speaks of abhāva as the opposite of sat and asat as the opposite of bhāva.
nasato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate satah/
ubhayor api dysto'ntas tvanayos tattvadarsibhiḥ// It may be observed in passing that this two-plank epistemological frame is perhaps the earliest in point of time, since references to sat and asat as parallel categories can be traced from the Rgveda-mantra
na sad āsīt no'sad āsīt tadānim tama asit
down to the Upanișadic declarations
asad vā idam agra āsīt. tato vai sad ajāyata asanneva sa bhavati,
asad brahmeti veda cet. asti brahmeti ced veda, santamenam tato viduh. and so on.
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