Causes in nyāya – nimitta kāraṇa

I continue discussing the types of causes or kāraṇas in nyāya based on Śrī Devadatta Pātil Śarmā’s excellent Sanskrit book, Vidyādharī, which is a commentary to the Tarka-Sangraha. As a reminder, to determine whether a particular entity is a kāraṇa or cause for an effect that is to be produced, one must check whether it satisfies the following criteria —

1. It must be present in the substratum before the effect is produced.
2. It must be present in the substratum in which the effect is present
3. It must always be present in the substratum in which the effect is present

I discussed samavāyi and asamavāyi kāraṇa here and here. Here I will examine the concept of nimitta kāraṇa.

The nimitta kāraṇa is defined as that kāraṇa which does not satisfy the definitions of samavāyi or asamavāyi kāraṇas. Recall that an asamavāyi kāraṇa of the first type is that in which the cause is present in the adhikaraṇa by samavāya saṁbandha and the effect is also present in the same adhikaraṇa by samavāya saṁbandha. The asamavāyi kāraṇa of the second type is that which is present by samavāya saṁbandha in the adhikaraṇa, while the effect is present in the same adhikaraṇa by sva-samavāyi-samavāyitva saṁbandha. Finally, a samavāyi kāraṇa is that which is present in the adhikaraṇa by tādātmya saṁbandha while the effect is present in the same adhikaraṇa by samavāya saṁbandha.

The nimitta kāraṇa does not fit in any of these categories. As an example, consider the following scheme:

Here, the clay that is being moulded on the pot is on the potter’s wheel. The wheel is also one of the causes of the pot – as without it, the pot cannot come into being. However, according to the rules above, the potter’s wheel needs to be in the same adhikaraṇa as the pot. How can this be? The reply is that the wheel is present in the clay through saṁyoga saṁbandha. This way, the pot and wheel are in the same adhikaraṇa and the cause-effect rule can apply.

Consider the stick that is used to rotate the wheel. The stick is also a type of cause of the pot. This stick can be brought into the clay through paraṁparā sambandha as follows: the stick rotates the wheel which rotates the clay. So by sva-janya-cakra-niṣṭha-bhrami-janya-kapāla-niṣṭha-bhrami-saṁbandha, the stick is in the clay. In other words, the stick is connected to the clay through the successive chain of motions that it generates.

As an aside, in nyāya, one entity is brought into another through such relations. For example, consider the sentence, Rāma is Daśaratha’s son. Being the son, Rāma possesses son-ness, but this son-ness is delimited by Daśaratha (i.e. he is specifically Daśaratha’s son). Thus, Daśaratha can be located in Rāma by sva-putratva saṁbandha.