---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.0
id: anumana-samkhya
title: Anumāna (Sāṃkhya)
iast: Anumāna
devanagari: अनुमान
description: Inference as Samkhya treats it -- brief, school-scoped pointer noting Samkhya's specific classification of inference types, the FOURTH cross-bundle referent for this term after vedanta-epistemology (v0.3, Advaita), nyaya-vaisheshika (v0.9, the lead technical treatment), and Samkhya's own use of inference to argue for the unmanifest (avyakta) and purusha's existence.
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- anumana
- inference
- samkhya
- epistemology
not:
- term: the Nyaya five-membered syllogism apparatus (v0.9)
  why: 'Nyaya-vaisheshika (v0.9) is the lead, most technically developed treatment of anumana in this corpus -- the five-membered syllogism, vyapti, hetvabhasa. Samkhya''s use of anumana is comparatively brief: mainly deployed to argue for the existence of the unmanifest (avyakta) and of purusha itself, without developing an equally elaborate formal apparatus.'
  instead: 'Treat this file as a brief pointer, not a competing full treatment: for the developed technical apparatus of inference, defer to nyaya-vaisheshika v0.9''s anumana.md.'
related:
- /concepts/pramana-samkhya.md
- /concepts/purusha.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Anumāna (Sāṃkhya) -- अनुमान

**Not:** the Nyaya five-membered syllogism apparatus (v0.9)

## What It Actually Means

Sāṃkhya's use of anumāna is principally argumentative rather than logically elaborated: it is the tool used to establish the existence of things not directly perceivable -- the unmanifest root-cause (avyakta) inferred from its manifest effects, and puruṣa inferred from the very fact that prakṛti's activity requires a witness for whose sake it operates. This is a leaner, more applied treatment of inference than Nyaya's formal apparatus.

## Audience Metaphor

Sāṃkhya uses inference the way a detective uses a single decisive clue to establish that an unseen party must exist, rather than building an entire forensic laboratory around the method itself -- the laboratory is Nyaya's job (v0.9); Sāṃkhya just needs the one solid inference to make its case.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Karika 6-8 -- see [references/samkhya-karika.md](../references/samkhya-karika.md)
2. Cross-bundle pointer: for the developed technical apparatus, see nyaya-vaisheshika v0.9's anumana.md (the lead treatment); this is the fourth, briefest cross-bundle referent after v0.3 and v0.9
