Pramāṇa
“the threefold means of valid knowledge”
idea · 4 works · 5 mentions · 7 anchored passages
pramāṇa · the means of valid knowledge · anumāna · inference · means of valid knowledge · perception · perception, inference, and trustworthy testimony · pratyakṣa · word (śabda) · āgama
in the texts
Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana
The Sāṃkhya epistemological scheme of exactly three valid means of knowledge—perception, inference, and word/testimony.
The means of valid knowledge is threefold, in the form of perception, inference, and word.
" If presumption (arthāpatti), [reasoning from] possibility, [from] non-existence (abhāva), tradition (aitihya), intuition (pratibhā), and comparison (upamāna) are means of valid knowledge, then they are to be subsumed here [under the three already stated], not [taken] separately.
] The means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa) is threefold.
Tarkasaṃgraha
The four-fold instrument of veridical experience: perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony.
Veridical experience is four-fold, by the distinction of perception, inference, comparison, and verbal testimony.
Sāṃkhyakārikā
The threefold epistemology of perception, inference, and trustworthy testimony by which all objects of knowledge are established.
The cognition of things beyond the senses [comes] from inference based on general [observed] correlation.
Inference, declared to be of three kinds, is preceded by [the relation of] the liṅga (mark) and the mark-bearer.
Perception, inference, and trustworthy testimony — since [these] comprise the establishment of every means of knowledge — are held to be the pramāṇa (dṛṣṭa, anumāna, āptavacana) (means of valid knowledge), threefold;
Vrhaspatitattva
The three valid means of knowledge: pratyakṣa (perception), anumāna (inference), and āgama (scriptural authority).
> *Pratyakṣa*, *anumāna*, and the word of scripture from the final authority, > are declared the threefold *pramāṇa*;
One who is possessed of these three *pramāṇa*—*pratyakṣa*, *anumāna*, and *āgama*—is said to have *samyagjñāna* (correct knowledge).