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CHAPTER X
EXTRAORDINARY PERCEPTION (ALAUKIKA
PRATYAKSA)
i
Sāmānyulaksana or the perception of classes
In the ancient school of the Nyāya we do not meet with the distinction between lauhrka or ordinary and alaukika or extraordinary perception This distinction appears in the modern Vyāya beginning with Gangesa In laukika or ordinary perception there is a normal sense-contact with objects present to sense In alaukika perception, however, the objects are not actually present to sense, but are conveyed to it through an extraordinary medium In it there is a special kind of sense-object contact (alaukika-sannikarsa). Extraordinary perception is of three kinds, namely, sāmānyalakșana, jñānalah sana and yogaja.
Sāmānyalaksana is the perception of a whole class of objects through the generic property (sāmünya) perceived in any individual member of that class Thus when we perceive something as a pot we judge it as belonging to the class of pots. But to know that the thing belongs to the class of pots is also to know all other pots belonging to the same class. To say that this is a pot' is to know, by implication, what all other pots are. Hence in perceiving one thing as a pot we perceive all other pots. But the other pots are not present to sense in the same way in which one is present. How then can there be any perception of the other pots? If there is to be any perception of the other pots, they must be in some sort of contact (sannikarşa) with
