Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/124

72 mdna, that is, the means or instruments by which Prama or the right measure of any subject is to be obtained. Under this head are enunciated the different processes by which the mind arrives at true and accurate know ledge.

These processes are declared in the third Sutra of the first book to be four, viz.

a. Pratyaksha, perception by the senses/ b. Anumdna, inference/ c. Upamana, comparison/ cl. Sabda, verbal authority or trust worthy testimony/ including Vedic revelation.

The treatment of the second of these, viz. inference, possesses more interest for Europeans, as indicating that the Hindus have not, like other nations, borrowed their logic and metaphysics from the Greeks.

Inference is divided in Sutra I. 32 into five Avayavas or members/

1. The pratijnd or proposition (stated hypothetically). 2. The hetu or reason. 3. The uddharana (sometimes called nidarsana) or example (equiva lent to the major premiss). 4. The upanaya or application of the reason (equivalent to the minor premiss). 5. The nigamana or conclusion (i. e. the pratijna or proposition re-stated as proved).

This method of splitting an inference or argument into five divisions is familiarly illustrated by native commen tators thus :

i. The hill is fiery ; 2. for it smokes ; 3. whatever smokes is fiery, as a kitchen-hearth (or, inversely, not as a lake, which is invariably without fire) ; 4. this hill smokes ; 5. therefore this hill is fiery.

Here we have a combination of enthymeme and syllo gism, which seems clumsy .by the side of Aristotle s more concise method ; the fourth and fifth members being repe titions of the second and first, which, therefore, appear superfluous. But it possesses some advantages when