Nyayavatara

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Sanskrit Book Depot P Ltd

Page 17

(xvii)
(1) inference for one's own self (svārthānumāna) and (2) inference for the sake of others (parārthānumāna).
The first kind is the inference deduced in one's own mind after having made repeated observations. A man by repeated observations in the kitchen and elsewhere forms the conclusion in his mind that fire is always an antecedent of smoke. Afterwords, he is not certain whether a hill which he sees has fire on it or not. But, noticing smoke, he at once brings to mind the inseparable connection between fire and smoke, and concludes that there must be fire on the hill. This is the inference for one's own self.
If the inference is communicated to others through words, it is called an inference for the sake of others. A type of this kind of inference is as follows:
(1) The hill (minor term or pakşa) is full of fire (major term or sādhya);
(2) because it is full of smoke (middle term or hetu);
(3) whatever is full of smoke is full of fire, as, e.g. a kitchen (example or dȚştānta);
(4) so is this hill full of smoke (application or upanaya); (5) therefore this hill is full of fire (conclusion or nigamana).
4. Terms of a syllogism In a proposition the subject is the minor term (pakşa) and the predicate the major term (sādhya). The minor term is that with which the connection of the major term is to be shown. In the proposition "the hill is full of fire,” the hill is the minor term and fire major term. The middle term (hetu) is defined as that which cannot occur otherwise than in connection with the major term. Thus in the proposition : "the hill is full of fire because it is full of smoke," smoke is the middle term which cannot arise from any other thing than fire which is the major term. The example (dřştānta) is a familiar case which assures the connection between the major term and the middle term. It is of two kinds. (1) homogeneous or affirmative (sādharmya), such as, "the hill is full of fire because it is full of smoke, as a kitchen," and (2) heterogeneous or negative (vaidharmya) which assures the connection between the the middle term and major term by contrariety, that is, by showing that the absence of the major term is attended by the absence of the middle term, such as "where there is no fire there is no smoke, as in a lake,"