Theories of Illusion in Indian Philosophy

Every school of Indian philosophy has prescribed its own ways to obliterate human sufferings in the best possible manner. More or less each of them has pointed out that the root cause of sufferings is false cognition of human being about the world and its objects. Only true cognition can eliminate the false one and like the destruction of a series in a chain, the sufferings will be automatically demolished at a point of time. Hence it is necessary to know the nature as well as the characteristics of false cognition. The term illusion is used to denote false cognition according to Indian philosophy. So it may or may not have similarities with the views of Western thought. Each major school of Indian philosophy has analysed the theory of illusion from its metaphysical as well as epistemological standpoint. As a result, major theories — Samkhya-Yoga, Buddhist, Nyaya, Mimamsa and Vedanta — regarding illusion (popularly known as Khyativada) and many more minor theories have originated. This volume thus extensively analyses how these schools have criticized their opponents’ standpoint to establish their own view, making it an interesting reading for everyone, be it a general reader, a student or a scholar in a simple and easy to understand format and language.