अनुमानanumāna

अनुमान (anumāna) is a Sanskrit word meaning permission, consent, drawing a conclusion from given premises, inference, consideration, reflection, guess, conjecture, one of the means of obtaining true knowledge, inference or drawing a conclusion from premises. Its 14 recorded definitions are grouped into 2 contexts, among them Inference and Reasoning, Permission or Consent.

Root: 1. मा (1. mā)
Etymology: E. अनु, and मा to measure, affix ल्युट्
Definitions: 14

View Declension Tables , 48 forms

Meanings by context

Inference and Reasoning

12 definitions

drawing a conclusion from given premises

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

inference, consideration, reflection

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

guess, conjecture

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

one of the means of obtaining true knowledge

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)

inference

— Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. Inference or logical conclusion from given premises. 2. A guess or conjecture. 3. A figure of speech in rhetoric based on inference.

— Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary

See anuma

— Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. Inferring. 2. Argument. 3. Analogy.

— Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary

inference

— Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary

1. Inferring or drawing a conclusion from given premises. 2. A figure of speech in rhetoric involving inference.

अनुमा (mā)न (anumāna) [Printed book page 098-a]
अनुमा (mā)न (anumāna) Tatpur. n. (-नम् (-nam)) ¹ Inferring, as the cause of अनुमिति (anumiti)

or of a conclusion drawn from given premises. According to

the Sāṅkhya and Yoga-philosophies it is one of the three

means (see प्रमा (mā)ण (pramāṇa)) by which true knowledge may be ob-

tained (see also प्रत्यक्ष (pratyakṣa) or दृष्ट (dṛṣṭa) and आगम (āgama) or आप्तवचन (āptavacana));

according to the Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika phil., one of the

four means for this end (see also प्रत्यक्ष (pratyakṣa), उपमा (mā)न (pratyakṣa, upamāna) and शब्द (śabda)).

Inference may be, according to the definitions of Sāṅkhya

and Nyāya philosophers, either one by induction (पूर्ववत् (pūrvavat))

e. g. that it will rain because clouds have gathered, or one

by analogy (सामा (mā)न्यतो दृष्ट (dṛṣṭa)म् (sāmānyato dṛṣṭam)), e. g. that moon and stars are

locomotive because they change their place and that a person

therefore who changes his place is locomotive; or one by ne-

cessity (शेषवत् (śeṣavat)), e. g. that the ocean will be salt, because a

drop taken from it, is salt. According to the Vaiśeṣika

philosophers, inference may be either purely consecutive or

positive (केवलान्वयिन् (kevalānvayin)), i. e. when the major term is not

excluded by any other notion (comp. अनुपसंहारिन् (anupasaṃhārin)), e. g.

all that can be known can be named, because only positive

(not negative instances) can be alleged to prove the asser-

tion; or purely exclusive or negative (केवलव्यतिरेकिन् (kevalavyatirekin)), i. e.

when only negative proof can be adduced, e. g. in asserting

that earth is distinguished from all the other elements, be-

cause it is possessed of the quality of smell, for the ar-

gument would be that all that is not distinguished from

all the other elements, is not possessed of the quality of
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smell; or positive and negative (अन्वयव्यतिरेकिन् (anvayavyatirekin)), i. e.

when there exist positive and negative instances of the major

term, e. g. where there is fire there is smoke, because the

positive argument would be ‘on the hearth’ and the negative

‘in the lake’. (The Mīmānsā and Vedānta philosophies do

not discuss these topics, as inference is not considered by

them to be a means of arriving at true knowledge.) ² (In

rhetoric.) A logical anakolouthon by the way of inference,

an अलंकार (alaṃkāra) or mode of writing elegantly, e. g. ‘wherever

falls the look of woman, there fall sharpened arrows; I

think therefore that the God of Love runs before them while

shooting off his arrows’. E. मा (mā) with अनु, (anu,) kṛt aff. ल्युट् (lyuṭ).

[ID=3200]

— Goldstücker Sanskrit-English Dictionary

the forming of a conception

— Lanman's Sanskrit Reader Vocabulary

1. Inference or drawing a conclusion from premises. 2. Consideration, reflection, guess, or conjecture. 3. A means of obtaining knowledge in certain philosophical systems.

— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872)

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Definitions on this page come from 9 works: Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cappeller Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Goldstücker Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Lanman's Sanskrit Reader Vocabulary, Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1872), Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Vaidya Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Wilson Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Text from the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon.