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CHAPTER XI
THE NATURE OF INFERENCE
1. Definition of Anumāna or Inference Anumāna literally means such knowledge as follows some other knowledge. It is the knowledge of an object due to a previous knowledge of some sign or mark (linga). The previous knowledge is the knowledge of the linga or mark as having a universa relation with the sādhya or major term and as being present in the pakṣa or minor term. Hence anumāna bar been defined in the Nyāya system as the knowledge of ar object, not by direct observation, but by means of the knowledge of a linga or sign and that of its universal relatior (vyāpti) with the inferred object.
The object of inference is some fact which follows from some other fact because of a universal relation between the two. With regard to something of our experience we want to know by means of anumāna that which may not be perceived but is indicated by what is perceived in it. Anumāna as a pramāņa is therefore the source of our knowing through the medium of a sign or mark that a thing has a certain character. It leads to the knowledge of a thing as possessing a character, say fire, because of its having another character, smoke, which we apprehend and which we know to be always connected with it. Thus in anumāna we arrive at the knowledge of an object through the medium of two acts of knowledge or propositions.
1 Miteos lingens lingino'rthagya pascanmånamazumādam, NB,1 1 3 i Vyaptivisişta-pakşadbarmatājñānaianyam, etc., TC, II, p 2. 8 NM., p. 109.
