Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics: Cārvāka, Nyāya, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta
Pramāṇa map
The exam tests which school accepts which pramāṇa and how metaphysical claims follow. Cārvāka: pratyakṣa alone; rejects anumāna and śabda. Nyāya: four-pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamāna, śabda-and a realist metaphysics of dravya, guṇa, karma, sāmānya, viśeṣa, samavāya and abhāva. Sāṃkhya: three-pratyakṣa, anumāna, śabda-and a dualism of prakṛti and puruṣa; prakṛti has sattva, rajas, tamas. Yoga adds īśvara and defines yoga as citta-vṛtti-nirodha. Mīmāṃsā stresses śabda and accepts arthāpatti and anupalabdhi; it is atheistic. Advaita Vedānta: Brahman alone real, world māyā, vivartavāda.
Worked example
You see smoke on a hill and infer fire. The Nyāya form is: wherever smoke, there fire; here smoke; therefore here fire. Validity depends on vyāpti, the universal relation, not on the number of observations. Cārvāka would reject the inference because it goes beyond perception; Nyāya defends it through vyāpti and pramāṇa.
Traps
Do not assign four pramāṇas to Sāṃkhya or perception-only to Nyāya. Do not call Mīmāṃsā nāstika: it is āstika but atheistic. Do not confuse Sāṃkhya's puruṣa with a personal God; Yoga's īśvara is distinct. Do not reduce Advaita māyā to illusionism without qualification.