According to the Naiyāyikas, through which sense–object relation is the…

Concept

Concept: In Nyāya, sense perception is analysed through specific sense–object relations (sannikarṣa). Samaveta-samavāya means the inherence of something in an entity that is itself inherent: a universal inheres in a quality or action, while that quality or action inheres in its substratum.

Application

Application: Sound (śabda) is treated as a quality that inheres in ākāśa, which constitutes the auditory sense. The universal soundhood (śabdatva) inheres in individual sounds. Thus, soundhood is apprehended through the relation of inherence in what is inherent—Samaveta-Samavāya.

Contrast

• Samavāya is direct inherence; it accounts for apprehending sound as a quality inherent in ākāśa, not the further universal inhering in sound.

• Saṃyukta-Samaveta-Samavāya begins with conjunction and then passes through two levels of inherence, as when a sense organ apprehends a universal belonging to a quality of a conjoined substance.

• Saṃyukta-Viśeṣaṇatā is a qualificative relation used especially in the perception of absence in a locus connected with the sense organ.

Cross-check

Cross-check: The relational chain is auditory sense/ākāśa → sound by inherence → soundhood by inherence. The two successive inherence links identify Samaveta-Samavāya as the required relation.