---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: pramanya
title: Pramā / Prāmāṇya
iast: Pramā / Prāmāṇya
devanagari: प्रमा / प्रामाण्य
description: 'Valid cognition (pramā) and the theory of how its validity is apprehended (prāmāṇya): Nyāya''s paratah-prāmāṇya, validity known extrinsically through corroboration and successful action, against Mīmāṃsā''s intrinsic svataḥ-prāmāṇya; NOT self-certifying intuition, NOT coherentism, NOT a definition of truth as usefulness.'
darshana:
- Nyāya
school_scope: 'The paratah-svataḥ debate is a Nyāya vs Mīmāṃsā/Advaita dispute. Nyāya: both the arising and the apprehension of a cognition''s validity are extrinsic. Advaita/Mīmāṃsā (vedanta-epistemology v0.3, svatah-pramanya): validity is intrinsic. Cross-linked, school-scoped.'
text_source: Nyāya Bhāṣya on 2.1.8-20
tags:
- pramanya
- prama
- validity
- nyaya
- epistemology
not:
- term: self-certifying intuition (a cognition that guarantees its own truth)
  why: 'That is precisely the rival svataḥ-prāmāṇya position. Nyāya denies it: a cognition arises without a stamp of validity; we come to know it is valid extrinsically, through corroboration, coherence with other cognitions, or the success of action based on it. Validity is apprehended from outside, not read off the cognition itself.'
  instead: 'State prāmāṇya as extrinsically apprehended: a cognition presents its content, and we learn whether it is valid by further means, chiefly by whether action on it succeeds; error is detected the same way.'
- term: coherentist justification
  why: 'Nyāya is a realist correspondence view: a pramā is a cognition that presents its object as it is. Corroboration and successful action are the means by which validity is ascertained, not what validity consists in. Truth is correspondence to the object, not membership in a coherent web.'
- term: truth as usefulness (pragmatism about truth)
  why: Successful action (pravṛtti-sāmarthya) is Nyāya's test for ascertaining validity, not its meaning. A cognition is valid because it matches its object; that it also enables successful action is the sign, not the definition, of its validity.
related:
- /concepts/pramana.md
- /concepts/pratyaksha.md
- /concepts/anyatha-khyati.md
- /concepts/anumana.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Pramā / Prāmāṇya -- प्रमा / प्रामाण्य

**Not:** self-certifying intuition, coherentism, truth-as-usefulness

## What It Actually Means

Pramā is a valid, veridical cognition, one that presents its object as it really is; prāmāṇya is its validity, and the famous question is how that validity comes about and how it is known. Nyāya answers paratah on both counts: a cognition's validity is produced by special excellences in its causes (guṇa) and, crucially, is apprehended extrinsically, not given with the cognition itself. When a cognition arises we do not yet know it is valid; we ascertain this through corroboration by other cognitions and, decisively, through the success of action grounded on it, water that quenches confirms the perception of water. Invalidity is detected the same way, by failure and contradiction. This directly opposes the Mīmāṃsā and Advaita doctrine of svataḥ-prāmāṇya, on which every cognition carries its own validity until defeated. The dispute is not a quibble: it is where Nyāya's cautious, corroboration-seeking realism most sharply parts from the intrinsic-validity traditions.

## Audience Metaphor

A rival view says every honest-seeming banknote is genuine until proven fake, its validity self-evident. Nyāya runs the bank's counter instead: a note is presented, and you find out it is good by checking it against the world, holding it to the light, and seeing that it actually buys what it claims. The note's face value is its content; its being real is something you establish from outside, by whether it works.

## Citations

1. Nyāya Sūtra 2.1.8-20 with Vātsyāyana's Bhāṣya (the validity debate) -- see [references/nyaya-bhashya.md](../references/nyaya-bhashya.md)
2. Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, Nyāyamañjarī, on paratah-prāmāṇya -- see [references/nyayamanjari.md](../references/nyayamanjari.md)
3. Cross-bundle: svataḥ-prāmāṇya in vedanta-epistemology v0.3 -- the intrinsic-validity rival; school-scoped
