''Upamāṇa'' (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
: "comparison"), ''upamana'' in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, is a ''
pramāṇa'', or means of having knowledge of something. Observance of similarities provides knowledge of the relationship between the two. It also means getting the knowledge of an unknown thing by comparing it with a known thing. For example, assume a situation where a man has
not seen a gavaya or a wild cow and doesn't know what it is. A forester told him that a wild cow
is an animal like a country cow but she is more furious and has big horn in her forehead. In a
later period he comes across a wild cow in a forest and recognizes it as the wild cow by
comparing the descriptions made by the forester. This knowledge is possible due to the upamana
or comparison. Thus, upamana is the knowledge of the relation between a name and the object it
denotes by that name.
Hindu philosophical concepts
Epistemology
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