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Society, Epistemology and Logic in Indian Tradition
Haribhadra explains that śrutajñāna may deal with the obstructed, distant and subtle objects, hence that has more clarity."
One another differentiating characteristic between these two knowledges, according to Tattvārthabhāsya is that śrutajñāna has wider objectivity than matijñāna. It gives two arguments in the support: the first, that śrutajñāna is produced by an omniscient and the second, that it deals with infinite knowables.
Śrutajñāna is quite different from matijñāna (sensuous knowledge). Matijñāna has stages of avagraha, iha, avāya and dhāraṇa knowledge and it requires sense organs, mind or both for its manifestation whereas śrutajñāna requires an inner light which leads a person to understand and experience the momentariness of worldly things. It is a self-knowledge by which a person becomes able to discriminate between the good (śreya) and covetable (preya). It tends a person to a real spiritual development. He can renunciate the worldly attractions. It can be called as prajña (wisdom). In other words matijñāna is a knowledge and śrutajñāna is a wisdom. Bhāvaśruta-jñāna: Essential in Every Living Being
According to canonical notion every living being has at least two knowledge, i.e. matijñāna and śrutajñāna. In the absence of right view (samyaktva) these are called as matiajñāna and śruta-ajñāna. If we consider śrutajñāna as verbal or scriptural knowledge, then it never appears in one "Haribhadriya Tattvārtha vrtti 1.20, p.103 "Sabhâsyatattvārthadhigamasūtra 1.20 : sarvajñapranītatvād-anantyacca jñeyasya śrutajñānam. matijñānān mahävişayam.
