SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The first chapter will contain a discussion of the various pramanas (means of establishing proof) and their relative importance. The second chapter will deal with Alamkara (poetics) and the prominence and elaborate nature of figures of speech in this branch of literature. This will be followed by a detailed consideration of the simile as employed in the philosophical texts and as reflecting the general condition of Indian society together with the physical environment. The fourth chapter will supplement the application of the concrete reality by the discussion of a reality of fiction in the philosophical sense for the purpose of evidence. Finally there will be a short summing up of the conclusions arrived at. The chief texts and commentaries referred to will be: Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (with commentary), Vedantasara, Sankhyakarika, with Gaudapada's commentary and Sankhyatattvakaumudi, Yogasutras with Vyasa's comnentary and Vacaspatimisra's gloss, Mallisena's Syadvadamanjari, Nyayabindu and commentary, Udayana's Kusumanjali, Nyayasutras, and Madhavas Sarvadarsanasangraha.