Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources c22.s2: Presumption—according to Prabhākara
Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā in its Sources c22.s2
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- English
Presumption—according to Prabhākara
c22.s2.1
What ‘cannot be explained’—without the Presumption—is ‘Non-Existence outside’ along with ‘Non-Existence in the house’ (which latter is directly perceived). Hence, the perception of Non-Existence in the House becomes the source of *Inexplicability* of the man’s *Existence* (i.e., being alive) without the recognition of the connection of that Existence with outside. This ‘in-explicability’ consists in contrariness (inconsistency) to other Means of Right Cognition. The process is as follows:—(a) First of all there is Perception of the fact that the Man is not in the House;—(b) so long as the connection of the Man’s Existence with outside is not duly known,—the fact of his being in existence (alive), though well-known, becomes uncertain, open to doubt.—“The Man not being in the House, is he alive at all?”—and (c) the *Existence*, thus rendered doubtful, is finally cognised as connected with *outside*. Thus what is inexplicable is the Man’s Existence (being alive); and this becomes explained by his existence *outside*, which thus forms the objective of the Presumptive Cognition.—(*Rjuvimalā*, pp. 112-113.)
c22.s2.2
Though the *Bhāṣya* has mentioned only two forms of Cognitions—*Seen* or *Heard* of—yet what is meant is whatever may be a fact duly ascertained through any of the Means of Right Cognition. So that the expession ‘Seen or Heard’ is an idiomatic one which is used in the sense of ‘Well-known’; such is the well-established usage.
c22.s2.3
This appears to be in anticipation of *Kumārila*'s view, by which ‘Seen’ stands for what is well-ascertained through all the six Means of Cognition (Perception, Inference, Analogical Cognition, Verbal Cognition, Presumption and Negation), and he finds a special purpose in the separate mention of the ‘Heard’ fact.—(*Shlo. Vā.*, Presumption, 1-2) where we read:—
c22.s2.4
प्रमाणग्राहिणीत्वेन यस्मात् पूर्वविलक्षणा
c22.s2.5
[ श्रुतोद्भवा अर्थापत्तिः ]
c22.s2.6
according to which the *Presumption* based upon Verbal Cognition is in the form of Words, i.e., the words ‘He eats at night.’ This is contested in detail by the *Ṛjuvimalā*, pp. 115—117,—according to which what is presumed is the *fact of the man eating at night*, not the *Verbal Cognition* that ‘he eats at night.’