Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c7.s1.3

c7.s1.3

The knowledge arising out of sense contact with an object, and which is determinate, unnamable and non-erratic, is *pratyakṣa* (perception). Inference is knowledge preceded by perception and is of three kinds — *pūrvavat* (a priori), *śeṣavat* (a posteriori) and *sāmānyatodṛṣṭa* (commonly seen). A discourse from an authentic source is *śabda* (scriptural authority). Knowledge of an object through similarity is *upamāna* (analogue).⁸