---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: pratyaksha
title: Pratyakṣa
iast: Pratyakṣa
devanagari: प्रत्यक्ष
description: 'Perception, the first pramāṇa: valid cognition arising from sense-object contact, in an indeterminate (nirvikalpaka) and a determinate (savikalpaka) phase; a realist contact-theory of knowing; NOT sense-data phenomenalism, NOT bare sensation, NOT the Advaita perception that is finally sublated.'
darshana:
- Nyāya
- Vaiśeṣika
school_scope: Nyāya perception is realist and contact-based, reaching the external object itself. vedanta-epistemology v0.3 treats pratyakṣa within Advaita, where even valid perception belongs to the transactable level and is finally transcended. Cross-linked, school-scoped.
text_source: Nyāya Sūtra 1.1.4
tags:
- pratyaksha
- perception
- nyaya
- realism
- sannikarsha
not:
- term: sense-data or private phenomena
  why: For Nyāya perception is contact with the external object, not the having of private impressions from which an outer world is later inferred. The pot itself, not a pot-appearance, is what perception delivers. The sense-datum framework imports an intermediary the theory denies.
  instead: 'Present pratyakṣa as a contact-theory: sense meets object (sannikarṣa) and the object itself is directly cognised, first without conceptual articulation (nirvikalpaka), then as qualified (savikalpaka).'
- term: bare sensation without judgment
  why: Perception in Nyāya includes the determinate (savikalpaka) mode in which the object is cognised as a qualified thing ('that is a pot'). Reducing pratyakṣa to raw uninterpreted sensation drops the very phase that yields usable perceptual knowledge.
- term: perception that is ultimately unreal or sublated
  why: In Advaita, even correct perception is provisional and finally cancelled by non-dual knowledge. Nyāya grants perception standing, veridical, foundational knowledge of a real object; there is no higher cognition that unmasks it as false.
related:
- /concepts/pramana.md
- /concepts/anumana.md
- /concepts/dravya.md
- /concepts/pramanya.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Pratyakṣa -- प्रत्यक्ष

**Not:** sense-data, bare sensation, sublated perception

## What It Actually Means

Pratyakṣa is the primary and, for Nyāya, foundational pramāṇa: knowledge produced by the contact (sannikarṣa) of a sense faculty with its object. Nyāya analyses it in two phases. The indeterminate phase (nirvikalpaka) is bare acquaintance with the object and its features before they are verbally articulated; the determinate phase (savikalpaka) cognises the object as qualified by its kind, quality, and name ('this is a brown pot'). Crucially the object of perception is the external thing itself, not a mental proxy, which marks Nyāya's direct realism against both phenomenalism and representationalism. Perception also grounds the other pramāṇas: the vyāpti behind an inference is built from perceived cases. And where Advaita treats even sound perception as belonging to a level that liberation transcends, Nyāya treats it as durable knowledge of a durable world.

## Audience Metaphor

Nyāya perception is not a photograph you inspect in your head and then guess what it depicts. It is reaching out and touching the thing: your hand really meets the cup. First contact registers the shape wordlessly; a beat later you know it as 'my cup'. The cup was there the whole time; perceiving it was making contact, not viewing a private image of it.

## Citations

1. Nyāya Sūtra 1.1.4 (definition of perception) -- see [references/nyaya-sutra.md](../references/nyaya-sutra.md)
2. Vātsyāyana, Nyāya Bhāṣya, on sannikarṣa and the two phases -- see [references/nyaya-bhashya.md](../references/nyaya-bhashya.md)
3. Cross-bundle: pratyakṣa in vedanta-epistemology v0.3 -- the Advaita treatment; school-scoped
