is generated directly by the contact
of the senses with the object is said to be the product of
the perceptual process. Perception may be divided as indeterminate
(_nirvikalpa_) and (_savikalpa_) determinate. Indeterminate perception
is that in which the thing is taken at the very first moment of
perception in which it appears without any association with name.
Determinate perception takes place after the indeterminate stage
is just passed; it reveals things as being endowed with all characteristics
and qualities and names just as we find in all our concrete
experience. Indeterminate perception reveals the things with their
characteristics and universals, but at this stage there being no
association of name it is more or less indistinct. When once the
names are connected with the percept it forms the determinate
perception of a thing called savikalpa-pratyak@sa. If at the time
of having the perception of a thing of which the name is not known
to me anybody utters its name then the hearing of that should
be regarded as a separate auditory name perception. Only that
product is said to constitute nirvikalpa perception which results
from the perceiving process of the contact of the senses with
the object. Of this nirvikalpa (indeterminate) perception it is
held by the later naiyayikas that we are not conscious of it
directly, but yet it has to be admitted as a necessary first
stage without which the determinate consciousness could not
arise. The indeterminate perception is regarded as the first stage
in the process of perception. At the second stage it joins the
other conditions of perception in producing the determinate perception.
The contact of the sense with the object is regarded
as being of six kinds: (1) contact with the dravya (thing) called
sa@myoga, (2) contact with the gu@nas (qualities) through the thing
(_sa@myukta-samavaya_) in which they inhere in samavaya (inseparable)
relation, (3) contact with the gu@nas (such as colour etc.) in
the generic character as universals of those qualities, e.g. colourness
(rupatva), which inhere in the gu@nas in the samavaya relation.

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[Footnote 1: Ganges'a, a later naiyayika of great reputation, describes
perception as immediate awareness (_pratyak@sasya sak@satkaritvam
lak@sa@nam_).]

335

This species of contact is called sa@myukta-samaveta-samavaya,
for the eye is in contact with the thing, in the th