________________
UPAMANA AS INDEPENDENT PRAMANA
341
understanding the denotation of words in this latter way ? Is it perception or inference or testimony or any combination of these ? According to the Nyāya, it is a distinct method of knowledge called upamāna or comparison. It is no doubt true that the process involves an element of perception and testimony. The definition or the description comes to us as a spoken or written statement of some authority and, as such, is but a form of testimony. Similarly, we know by perception that certain objects possess the attributes or characteristics included in the definition or the description. But from this we cannot conclude that the process involved in the knowledge of those objects as denoted by a word is a combination of perception and testimony. To explain the elements of a knowledge is not to explain the knowledge itself, if it has a distinctive character of its own. Perception does not become ideation because it involves certain ideas and images. So too inference cannot be reduced to perception and testimony even though it includes certain elements derived from them. For the same reason the process of knowing the denotation of a word should not be reduced to perception and testimony, since they explain certain elements of the process but not the process itself. The next question is · Can we not explain the knowledge of denotation by an inference ? This can be done if we show that the knowledge of denotation follows as a conclusion from a universal proposition as major premise through the mediation of the minor premise. Now the knowledge of the denotation of a word can be deduced, at least theoretically, from a universal proposition like 'all animals resembling the cow are gavayas.' But to show that the denotation of words can be known by inference is not to show that it is actually so known. When we know the denotation of a word we do not argue syllogistically from premises to the conclusion, but simply compare certain facts with a given description. To know that these facts fit in with the description require
