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hindu-cosmosWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Tattva 19 — Sight (Cakṣus)

The power to see: the subtle faculty of perceiving form and color.

Cakṣus is the capacity for sight — the subtle power of perceiving form and color that works through the eyes. The third of the five knowing-faculties, it is how the embodied self takes in the visible world. As a tattva it is the seeing-power itself, distinct from the physical eye that serves as its instrument.

Key passages(4)

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Yagnavalkya said: 'Let us hear what anybody may have told you.' Ganaka Vaideha replied: 'Barku Varshna told me that sight (kakshus) is Brahman.' Yagnavalkya said: 'As one who had (the benefit of a goo

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Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Tarka-saṃgraha · Annaṃbhaṭṭa

High

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

Then they said to the eye: 'Do thou sing out for us.' 'Yes,' said the eye, and sang. Whatever delight there is in the eye, that he obtained for the Devas by singing; but that he saw well, that was for

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