---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: anyatha-khyati
title: Anyathā-khyāti
iast: Anyathā-khyāti
devanagari: अन्यथाख्याति
description: 'The Nyāya realist theory of perceptual error: in illusion a real object is apprehended ''otherwise'', a really-existing silver, elsewhere and now remembered, is misperceived as located in the really-present shell, so both relata are real and only their relation is wrong; NOT Advaita''s anirvacanīya-khyāti / adhyāsa (superimposition of the indeterminable), NOT hallucination of an unreal object, NOT a coherence failure.'
darshana:
- Nyāya
school_scope: Theory of error (khyāti-vāda) is a key inter-school battleground. Nyāya's anyathā-khyāti keeps both terms real (the world stays real even in error). Advaita's adhyāsa / anirvacanīya-khyāti (vedanta-epistemology v0.3, upanishadic-core v0.6) makes the erroneous content indeterminable (neither real nor unreal). Cross-linked, school-scoped contrast.
text_source: Nyāya Sūtra 4.2.31-37; Nyāya Bhāṣya
tags:
- anyatha-khyati
- error
- perception
- nyaya
- realism
not:
- term: Advaita's adhyāsa / anirvacanīya-khyāti (superimposition of the indeterminable)
  why: 'Advaita analyses the shell-silver illusion by making the erroneously-seen silver anirvacanīya, indeterminable as either real or unreal, projected by avidyā; error reveals the mind''s power to superimpose (adhyāsa), and this becomes the model for the whole world''s appearance on Brahman. Nyāya rejects any indeterminable entity: in error nothing unreal is seen; a real silver (known before, stored in memory) is simply mislocated onto a real shell. The disagreement about a single illusion scales up into the whole realism-versus-non-dualism divide.'
  instead: 'Define anyathā-khyāti as apprehending a real thing otherwise-than-it-is: both the shell (present) and the silver (real, elsewhere, revived by memory through a defect) are real; the error is only the wrong synthesis that places the one in the other. Reality is never breached, only misarranged.'
- term: hallucination of an unreal object
  why: Anyathā-khyāti insists the content of even an erroneous cognition is real; there is no perception of a non-existent silver. What is false is the relational judgment 'this (shell) is silver', not the existence of silver as such. Treating illusion as the mind conjuring an unreal object is exactly the view Nyāya's realism denies.
- term: a mere coherence or internal-consistency failure
  why: Error for Nyāya is a misplaced real relation between real things, detected and corrected by a subsequent valid cognition and by the failure of action (reaching for the silver, one grasps shell). It is not defined as incoherence within a web of beliefs; it is a specific misapprehension of a mind-independent world, undone by the world.
related:
- /concepts/pramanya.md
- /concepts/pratyaksha.md
- /concepts/atman.md
- /concepts/pramana.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Anyathā-khyāti -- अन्यथाख्याति

**Not:** adhyasa, hallucination, coherence failure

## What It Actually Means

Anyathā-khyāti, apprehending 'otherwise', is Nyāya's realist theory of what happens in perceptual error, worked out through the stock case of mistaking a piece of shell (nacre) for silver. Nyāya's analysis keeps everything real. The shell before me is real; silver is real too, seen before and now revived in memory because a defect (poor light, haste, a similarity) stirs the trace; and the error consists solely in a wrong synthesis that presents the remembered-real silver as here, in the present shell, in the judgment 'this is silver'. Nothing unreal is perceived, and no indeterminable entity is conjured; only the relation is misplaced, and it is corrected when a better cognition arrives ('this is only shell') and when action fails (one reaches and grasps nacre). This unassuming theory of a small illusion is a load-bearing wall of Nyāya realism, because the rival Advaita account, which makes the illusory silver anirvacanīya (neither real nor unreal) and treats such superimposition (adhyāsa) as the model for the entire world's appearance on Brahman, uses the very same example to reach non-dualism. Two schools, one shell and one word 'khyāti', and the whole realism-versus-monism question riding on how the mistake is parsed.

## Audience Metaphor

You grab for your phone on the nightstand and miss, it was actually your glasses case. One account says your mind conjured a ghostly indeterminate 'phone' out of ignorance. Nyāya says something soberer and more realist: the phone is real (it exists, just in your bag), the case is real (it is right there), and all that went wrong was the mind stitching a real memory onto a real object in the wrong place. The fix comes from the world, your hand closes on the case. No ghosts, just a misfiled real thing.

## Citations

1. Nyāya Sūtra 4.2.31-37 with Vātsyāyana's Bhāṣya (the theory of error) -- see [references/nyaya-bhashya.md](../references/nyaya-bhashya.md)
2. Udayana and the defence of anyathā-khyāti against rival khyāti-vādas -- see [references/nyayakusumanjali.md](../references/nyayakusumanjali.md)
3. Cross-bundle warning: adhyāsa / anirvacanīya-khyāti in vedanta-epistemology v0.3 and upanishadic-core v0.6 -- the non-dualist rival; school-scoped
