Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 1

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 63

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VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 1
their objects is fixed and unalterable and as such necessary and so the difference between verbal knowledge and the like from inferential knowledge is stressed for the sake of convenience. It has also been necessitated by the divergence of philosophers who skip over the element of necessity in the relation.
Now the author proposes to formulate the definition of inference (anumāna) in the following verse :
Text
sădhyāvinābhuno liigāt sādhyaniscayakam smstam / anumānam tadabhrántam pramăpatvat samakşavat //
Translation
“Anumana (inference) is that species of knowledge which determines the probandum on the strength of the prabans (literally the characteristic mark) which stands to the probandum in the relation of necessary concomitance. It is unerring because it is an organ of valid cognition just like perceptual cognition.” ... (V)
Elucidation
In the proposition stated above, the subject anumana (in ference) is the defined object and the predicate that which determines the probandum on the strength of the probans which stands in necessary relation to the probandum” sets forth the defining character (of it), because it is not definitely known and so stated as the predicate. It is called anumāna (inference), literally a cognition which takes place subsequent to (anu) the apprehension (māna) of the probans and recollection of its necessary relation to the probandum and cognizes the inferable predicate such as fire. Probandum is that which is capable of being proved by inference on the basis of the probans which cannot exist without the presence of the probandum It cannot be supposed to overlap the definition of perceptual cognition and verbal knowledge because it determines the probandum on the basis of necessarily concomitant probans which is not found in the aforesaid species of valid cognition The clause 'which is necessarily concomitant with the probandum' serves to exclude the definitions of the probans given by
1. såmānyalakṣaṇasadbhāvād ekākāramapi vipratipattinirakaraṇārtham
dvidba bhidyate. tadyathā anumānam sābdam ceti. yato'dyāpi sabda. syārthānyathānupapannatyam eva pare na pratipadyante, na căpşthakkştasya tadviviktam vaktum sakyam, ato bhedenopanyāsaḥ.
Nyāyāvatūra vivrti, p. 33,