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Wellsprings
hindu-mindfeatured in 2 works

Means of Knowledge (Pramāṇa)

How do we know anything truly? India's schools answered by counting the valid roads to knowledge.

Pramāṇa is one of the great organizing ideas of Indian philosophy: a 'valid means of knowledge,' a reliable route by which we come to know what is true. Schools build their whole systems on which means they accept — perception, inference, and the testimony of trustworthy words being the most widely admitted. Debates over the pramāṇas are how Indian thinkers argued about evidence, reason, and the authority of scripture.

How it traveled

  1. Yoga-sūtra
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 375
    explains
  2. Upadeśasāhasrī
    Kālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710
    explains

Key passages(18)

Tarka-saṃgraha · Annaṃbhaṭṭa

Very high

Yoga-sūtra · Patañjali

Very high

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

Very high

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Vaiśeṣika-sūtra · Kaṇāda

High

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

High

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

High

Vaiśeṣika-sūtra · Kaṇāda

High

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

High

Mīmāṃsā-sūtra · Jaimini

High

Mīmāṃsā-sūtra · Jaimini

High

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

Yoga-sūtra · Patañjali

Moderate

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

Chāndogya Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

Moderate