Skip to content
Wellsprings
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

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Tarka-saṃgraha · Annaṃbhaṭṭa

High

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate