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NYAYA THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
the ear through its inherence (samavāya) in sound which inheres as a quality (samaveta) in the auditory sense.' The universals of actions or motions belonging to perceptible things are perceived by the senses of sight and touch through the third kind of sense-contact, viz. samyuktasamaveta-samavāya. The universal ' motion' is in contact with the visual or cutaneous sense in so far as it subsists in a particular kind of movement inhering (samavcta) in something that is seen or touched (1 e. is conjoined with the visual or tactual sense).2
According to the Vedānta, the universal, as constituted by the common attributes of the individuals, is perceived along with the perception of the individuals. The perception of the different kinds of universals is mediated by different kinds of sense-contact The universal of substances is perceived by samyuktatādātmya, that of attributes or actions by samyuktābhinnatādātmya, and that of sound by tādātmyavadabhinna forms of sense-object contact. These three forms correspond respectively to the second, third and fifth forms of sense-contact admitted by the Naiyāyıkas. But where the latter speak of the relation of inherence (samavāya), the Vedāntist puts in the relation of identity, since inherence is not admitted by him as a distinct category and the relation between substance and attribute, or universal and particular is said to be one of identity (tādātmya), so that they require no tertium quid like inherence to relate the one to the other. 8
Particularity (višeșa) is the extreme opposite of the universal (sāmānya). It is the ultimate ground of the differences of things from one another. Things are ordinarily distinguished from one another by means of their component parts or aspects. But the differences of parts
1 BP, 53, 61 7 BP., 54-56. 3 VP., Ch. I
