Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth

Pramāṇaśāstra is one of the two branches of Bharatiya Darsana. The other branch is called Prameyaśāstra. Pramāṇam means the theory of knowledge. Without Pramāṇam one cannot aquire valid knowledge. Pramāṇaśāstra deals with four main factors, viz. the nature of pramāṇam, the nature of pramā, the nature of pramātā and the nature of prameya. Thus, Indian epistemology comes to involve these four basic factors with the help of which different schools of Indian philosophy try to determine the methods of arriving at the conclusions. In Indian epistemology, two terms are used in the sense of knowledge. They are jñānam and pramā. Jñānam means all kinds of knowledge irrespective of whether true or false. But when reality reveals true knowledge it is called pramā or valid knowledge. The word prama  is used only in the sense of true knowledge (yathārtha jñāna) which is distinct from false knowledge(ayatharthajnana) . Yathartha or valid knowledge is a true and definite knowledge of some new facts and is the apprehension which agrees with the real character of the object apprehended. If any knowledge lacks definiteness or certitude or does not convey any new information or does not represent things as they really are, it is invalid.