In this essay, it is argued that Abhinavagupta's theory of error, the apūrn : akhyāti theory, synthesizes two distinguishable Pratyabhijñā treatments of error that were developed in three phases prior to him. The first theory was developed in two stages, initially by Somānanda in the Sivadr : s : t : i (Ś D) and subsequently by Utpaladeva in his Ī svarapratyabhijñākārikās (ĪPK) and his short autocommentary thereon, the Ī svarapratyabhijñāvr : tti (ĪPVr : ). This theory served to explain individual acts of misperception, and it was developed with the philosophy of the Buddhist epistemologists in mind. In a third phase, Utpaladeva developed in his Sivadr : s : t : ivr : tti (Ś DVr : ) a second theory of error, one that involved the noncognition of non-duality (abhedākhyāti) and served to explain both the appearance and perception of multiplicity, despite the strict monism to which all Pratyabhijñā authors subscribe. Abhinavagupta's treatment of error, then, is significant not only because it was meant to explain all the various theories of error offered by opposing philosophical schools, as Rastogi has shown, but more importantly because it synthesized the thinking of his predecessors on the matter in a single, elegant account of error.

In this essay, we make a case for reading narratives from the great story collections of medieval India as evidence of legal consciousness. We attempt to redirect the largely empirical approach of legal consciousness studies toward the literary and historical analysis of Sanskrit texts. In so doing, we move beyond a legal history of India that focuses too narrowly on the texts of Sanskrit jurisprudence. We conclude that such analysis provides insight into both the literarily constructed image of law as the hegemonic domain of elite Brahmins and kings and the assumptions and awareness of law and legal procedure among ordinary people in this historical context.

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Somānanda was a Brahmin of the Kashmir Valley who flourished c. 900–950 ce . He is the founding author of the Śaiva philosophical school known as the Pratyabijñā and is the author of the Śivadṛṣṭi.