Research Article

Pramāṇa and Evidence: Nyāya Epistemology in Contemporary Research Method

Sample Author

AbstractThis paper examines the Nyāya theory of pramāṇa as a framework for evaluating evidence in contemporary research methodology. Drawing on the Nyāyasūtra and Vātsyāyana's Bhāṣya, it argues that the fourfold classification of valid cognition — pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamāna and śabda — offers a discipline-independent account of justification that can be placed in dialogue with modern evidence hierarchies without collapsing either tradition into the other.

Introduction

This paper examines the Nyāya theory of pramāṇa as a framework for evaluating evidence in contemporary research methodology. Drawing on the Nyāyasūtra and Vātsyāyana's Bhāṣya, it argues that the fourfold classification of valid cognition — pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamāna and śabda — offers a discipline-independent account of justification that can be placed in dialogue with modern evidence hierarchies without collapsing either tradition into the other.

This is sample content prepared to demonstrate the journal platform. The published version would continue with the full argument, its evidence and its apparatus.

Method

Sources are cited by edition, chapter and verse where a primary text carries the argument. Where a translation is the author’s own, it is marked as such.

Discussion

Claims about a tradition are distinguished from the author’s inference, and modern scientific or social claims are supported by contemporary evidence rather than asserted.

Siddhanta Journal of World Knowledge Systems · Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026) · pp. 7-28
Published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.