Perception and Perceptual Error in Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta: A Comparative Review
International Journal of Novel Research and Development July 1, 2026 Snehal Vinayak Mane, Rina Puradkar
This paper examines how two classical Indian philosophical traditions, Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta, conceive of perception (Pratyakṣa) and perceptual error. Nyāya's realism holds that perception arises from sense-object contact (sannikarṣa), producing knowledge as a quality in the self. Advaita Vedānta, by contrast, sees perception as the manifestation of self-luminous consciousness through mental modification (vritti), which removes ignorance and discloses, rather than produces, knowledge of the object. The paper analyzes these differing accounts and compares how Nyāya's realism and Advaita's non-dualism shape perceptual knowledge, as well as their respective explanations of perceptual error, to reveal the epistemic depth of each system.