Pramā
From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
By Swami Harshananda
Pramā literally means ‘the knowledge’.
Technicalities of Treatises[edit]
Philosophical treatises often use four technical terms:
- Pramā - The correct knowledge that is got through the pramāṇas is ‘pramā’.
- Pramāṇa - The means of knowledge that gives us its correct understanding is ‘pramāṇa’.
- Prameya - An object that has to be known is ‘prameya’.
- Pramātṛ - The person who knows it thus is the pramātṛ.[1]
For instance, a pot is ‘prameya’. The eye that sees it and the process of seeing is ‘pramāṇa’. The knowledge got that it is a mud pot of small size, black in color, containing water, is ‘pramā’.
Classification of Pramā[edit]
Pramā is the true knowledge which is not negated by later perceptions. If negated, like seeing a snake in a rope in insufficient light and then discovering it in bright light that it is a rope, it is only a bhrama.[2] Sometimes, false knowledge is called apramā and three more varieties of it are predicated:
- Smṛti - insufficient memory
- Sanśaya - doubt
- Tarka - false logic
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore