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Matter
229
BUDDHIST OPPOSITION TO THE NYĀYA THEORY OF VISION
Thus it is that according to the Naiyāyika's, all the five sense-organs including those of hearing and vision are Prāpyakāri. We have seen how the Buddhists are opposed to the view that our auditory sensations are due to the auditory sense-organ coming in contact with the object of hearing. The Jaina's agreed with the orthodox thinkers in refuting this Buddhist contention. As regards the visual sensations, the Nyāya theory, as stated above, is that Tejas which constitutes the material basis of the organ of vision emanates from the eyes and generates the sensation of sight by coming in contact with the objects of vision. The Buddhists are opposed to this theory also. According to them, the organ of vision is not Prāpyakāri. If Viśvanātha is to be relied on as truly representing the Buddhist contention while criticising it, the Buddhists thinkers seem to have held that the black round substance on the eyes was the organ of sight and that as this substance cannot be said to come in contact with the object of vision, the sense-organ of vision cannot be said to be Prāpyakāri. The orthodox schools pointed out that the Buddhist position is fundamentally wrong. The organ of vision is not the gross black round substance on the eyes. According to the Sāmkhya philosophers, all the sense-organs are supersensuous havng their basis in Ahankāra. As Ahankāra is a pervading (Vyāpaka) and not a spatially limited reality, the sense-organs including the organ of vision are really continuous and as such, do come in contact with their objects while perceiving them. The Nyāya, of course, does not endorse this Sāṁkhya doctrine. As we have seen, according to the Nyāya, the organ of vision is not 377 fat or immaterial, as urged by the Sāṁkhya thinkers, but is essentially alfa or material. The Nyāya maintains that the subtler element, Tejas which forms the material basis of the organ goes out of the eyes and comes in contact with the object while generating its sensation. Thus in a different way, the Nyāya arrives at the conclusion, same as that of the Sāṁkhya and opposed to the Buddhist.
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