Comparison, upamāna (उपमान)

Summary

Comparison is Nyāya (न्याय)'s third means. A likeness learned from a trusted speaker lets you know the thing when you meet it. Sāṅkhya (साङ्ख्य) and Yoga do not give comparison its own place on the list of three. This page says what the Nyāya (न्याय) sūtra (सूत्र) claims, and it does not move that claim into a book that never named it.

नेपालीमा

उपमान न्यायको तेस्रो साधन हो। आप्तबाट सिकिएको सादृश्यले वस्तु भेट्दा चिनाउँछ। सांख्य र योगले तीनको सूचीमा उपमानलाई आफ्नै ठाउँ दिँदैनन्। यो पृष्ठले न्यायसूत्रको दाबी भन्छ, र त्यो दाबी उपमानको नाम कहिल्यै नलिएको पुस्तकमा सार्दैन।

Nyāya (न्याय) 1.1.6 defines it in three words: from likeness to what is already known, the establishing of what is to be established. prasiddha (प्रसिद्ध) is what is already settled. sādharmya (साधर्म्य) is having a property in common. sādhya (साध्य) is what still has to be fixed. sādhana (साधन) is the making of that link.

The picture the commentaries use is a cow and a gavaya (गवय). Someone knows a cow. Someone says a gavaya (गवय) is like a cow. In the forest, on the strength of that likeness, the person knows 'this is the thing that was called gavaya (गवय).' The defining sūtra (सूत्र) does not name the animal. Nyāya (न्याय) 2.1.48 does. It is an objection: an unperceived gavaya (गवय) gives comparison nothing to grasp. 2.1.49 answers that the gathering 'thus' is the work comparison does, and that this work has a mark of its own.

Who counts it

Nyāya (न्याय) counts it as the third of four. Both Mīmāṃsā (मीमांसा) schools count a means by this name. Kumārila (कुमारिल) takes comparison as the knowing of the likeness itself. Nyāya (न्याय) takes it as the knowing that ties the new thing to the name. One word, two jobs. The pages keep them apart.

Jaimini (जैमिनि)'s sūtra (सूत्र) does not define upamāna (उपमान) in the opening. The sixfold and fivefold lists are Kumārila (कुमारिल)'s and Prabhākara (प्रभाकर)'s.

Who leaves it inside the three

Sāṅkhya (साङ्ख्य) kārikā (कारिका) 4 says every means gets its standing from perception, inference, and trusted speech, so a further name is already inside those three. Yoga (योग)'s three at 1.7 have the same shape. Early Vaiśeṣika (वैशेषिक) gives the mark and, at 9.2.3, puts word under it. Comparison has no sūtra (सूत्र) of its own there. Cārvāka (चार्वाक) reports do not add it. The Buddhist pramāṇa (प्रमाण) school stays at two, and those manuals are not in this book.