Dear Stephen,

It just so happens that I have M. Hattori's Dignaaga on Perception,
which I have not yet studied even thought it's been sitting on my
bookshelf since 1980. It looks like a book worth reading. The
'perception' here is a translation of Skt. 'pratyak.sa'. When you
refer to theories of perception, do you take 'perception' as
'pratyak.sa' or 'sa.mj~naa'?

I looked up 'nimitta' in the index to the book and found the following
in the notes on pp. 158-9 (V.65):

... From this we should understand that vi.saya (= sensory
apprehension = graahya) is the nimitta which motivates the vi.sayin (=
mental apprehension = graahaka = naimittaka).

I thought this was interesting because the commentary on AN I.11
identifies the aaramma.na (which has the meaning of gocara or visaya
in addition to hetu) with the nimitta.

Another interesting find in my search for traditional Pali etymologies
(nibbacanas) of 'nimitta' which are mostly found in the .tiikaas (try
searching the CSCD under 'nimiiyati') is the following:

nimiiyati anumiiyati phala.m etenaati nimitta.m, kaara.na.m. -- Sv-p.t
II.9

"By it the fruit is measured, inferred; thus 'nimitta', cause." -- my
translation.

This shows that the verbal root of 'nimitta' is 'maa' (to measure),
and the word functions as an instrument (kara.nasaadhaka). I thought
the inclusion of 'anumiiyati' of interest because it is a cognate of
'anumaana' (inference) which forms a pair with 'pratyak.sa' in
Dignaaga works. This suggests to me that sa~n~naa can only infer
through the nimittas what is out there, in other words, it doesn't
have the capacity for direct perception which, however, would be
within reach of pa~n~naa, I think.

Best wishes,
Jim

You wrote in a response to Suan:

> 1. Buddhist Theory of Perception, CS Vyas (Navrang, New Delhi

1991)

> 2. Dignaga on Perception, trans Masaaki Hattori, Harvard Univ

Press 1968

> (a classic)
> 3. Recognizing Reality, Georges Dreyfuss, SUNY 1997
> 4. Any of the books by Bimal Matilal as he specialized in Indian

theories

> of perception, but try his Perception: An essay on Classical Indian

Theories

> of Knowledge