 Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika atomism also faced the challenge that their theory was only based on logical inference and could not be confirmed by experience (Bhaduri 1947, 58). In the atomism of Gautama, recognizing the reality of composites is important to secure the basis for knowledge, since atoms themselves are too small to be seen. Vātsyāyana supports this conclusion empirically, pointing out that a forest may be visible from a distance where the individual trees are not (Sarkar 2021). In an ongoing controversy with Buddhist philosophers over the reality of composite entities, Nyāya atomists denied that we are aware of composites only indirectly or by means of awareness of individual parts (Matilal 1986, 268).