we do not mean that it is possessed
of any such class-characters as satta (being); what we mean
is simply that the individual has its specific existence or svarupasatta.

382

Thus the Nyaya view of perception as taking only the
thing in its pure being apart from qualities, etc, (_sanmatra-vi@sayam
pratyak@sa@m_) is made untenable by Prabhakara, as according to
him the thing is perceived direct with all its qualities. According
to Kumarila however jati is not something different from the
individuals comprehended by it and it is directly perceived.
Kumarila's view of jati is thus similar to that held by Sa@mkhya,
namely that when we look at an individual from one point of
view (jati as identical with the individual), it is the individual that
lays its stress upon our consciousness and the notion of jati becomes
latent, but when we look at it from another point of view
(the individual as identical with jati) it is the jati which presents
itself to consciousness, and the aspect as individual becomes latent.
The apprehension as jati or as individual is thus only a matter
of different points of view or angles of vision from which we look
at a thing. Quite in harmony with the conception of jati, Kumarila
holds that the relation of inherence is not anything which is distinct
from the things themselves in which it is supposed to exist,
but only a particular aspect or phase of the things themselves
(_S'lokavarttika, Pratyak@sasutra_, 149, 150, _abhedat samavayo'stu
svarupam dharmadharmi@no@h_), Kumarila agrees with Prabhakara
that jati is perceived by the senses (_tatraikabuddhinirgrahya
jatirindriyagocara_).

It is not out of place to mention that on the evidence of
Prabhakara we find that the category of vis'e@sa admitted by the
Ka@nada school is not accepted as a separate category by the
Mima@msa on the ground that the differentiation of eternal
things from one another, for which the category of vis'e@sa is
admitted, may very well be effected on the basis of the ordinary
qualities of these things. The quality of p@rthaktva or specific
differences in atoms, as inferred by the difference of things they
constitute, can very well serve the purposes of vis'e@sa.

The nature of knowledge.

All knowledge involves the knower, the known object, and the
knowledge at the same identical moment. All knowledge whether
perceptual, inferential or of any other kind must necessarily reveal
the self or the knower directly. Thus as in