If complex structures made of material ingredients can arise from collective agency, then the world could similarly be the product of collective agency.

(2) The argument takes the picture of causation used in the “potter-pot” example and extends it to cover all natural phenomena. God’s function is to make things out of the given and uncreated ingredients (the atoms, cf. the clay), which are the products’ material cause. Matilal accordingly describes the Nyāya as having a “potter model” of God, in contrast with a “spider model”, in which God spins the world out of his own essence, or a “magician” model, in which the world is an illusion conjured