of view and acquiesce in the truths
indicated by it, not absolutely but under proper reservations and
limitations. The Jains hold that in formulating the doctrine of
_arthakriyakaritva_ the Buddhists at first showed signs of starting
on their enquiry on the evidence of experience, but soon they
became one-sided in their analysis and indulged in unwarrantable
abstract speculations which went directly against experience.
Thus if we go by experience we can neither reject the self nor
the external world as some Buddhists did. Knowledge which
reveals to us the clear-cut features of the external world certifies
at the same time that such knowledge is part and parcel of myself
as the subject. Knowledge is thus felt to be an expression of my
own self. We do not perceive in experience that knowledge

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in us is generated by the external world, but there is in us the
rise of knowledge and of certain objects made known to us by it.
The rise of knowledge is thus only parallel to certain objective
collocations of things which somehow have the special fitness
that they and they alone are perceived at that particular moment.
Looked at from this point of view all our experiences are centred
in ourselves, for determined somehow, our experiences come to us
as modifications of our own self. Knowledge being a character
of the self, it shows itself as manifestations of the self independent
of the senses. No distinction should be made between a conscious
and an unconscious element in knowledge as Sa@mkhya does. Nor
should knowledge be regarded as a copy of the objects which it
reveals, as the Sautrantikas think, for then by copying the materiality
of the object, knowledge would itself become material.
Knowledge should thus be regarded as a formless quality of the
self revealing all objects by itself. But the Mima@msa view that the
validity (_prama@nya_) of all knowledge is proved by knowledge itself
_svata@hprama@nya_) is wrong. Both logically and psychologically
the validity of knowledge depends upon outward correspondence
(sa@mvada) with facts. But in those cases where by previous
knowledge of correspondence a right belief has been produced
there may be a psychological ascertainment of validity without
reference to objective facts (_prama@nyamutpattau parata eva
jnaptau svakarye ca svata@h paratas'ca. abhyasanabhyasapek@saya_) [Footnote
ref 1]. The objective world exists as it is certified by experience. But
that it generates knowle