Upamana, Upamāna: 29 definitions
Introduction:
Upamana means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
Alternative spellings of this word include Upman.
In Hinduism
Shilpashastra (iconography)
Upamāna (one of the six types of measurement (māna)) is the meassurement of the inter-spaces, that is the width of the navel, the interval between the two thighs or the two big toes.
Upamāna (उपमान) refers to the “space between the limbs” and represents a type of measurement, as defined in the texts dealing with śilpa (arts and crafs), known as śilpaśāstras.—The measurements described in Sanskrit authorities are altogether of six kinds: māna (the proper height of the icon), pramāna (the breadth), unmāna (thickness), parimāṇa (the circumference), upamāna (the space between the limbs) and lambamāna (surface of the image).
Shilpashastra (शिल्पशास्त्र, śilpaśāstra) represents the ancient Indian science (shastra) of creative arts (shilpa) such as sculpture, iconography and painting. Closely related to Vastushastra (architecture), they often share the same literature.
Vastushastra (architecture)
Upamāna (उपमान):—One of the “six iconographic measurements”, according to the Mānasāra (sanskrit literary treatise on vāstu-śāstra, or, ‘architectural science’). The measurement unit is used in the process of procuring/securing the height of the principal image and secondary images. Breadth, circumference, and other dimensions are derived from the height using rules of proportion.
Vastushastra (वास्तुशास्त्र, vāstuśāstra) refers to the ancient Indian science (shastra) of architecture (vastu), dealing with topics such architecture, sculpture, town-building, fort building and various other constructions. Vastu also deals with the philosophy of the architectural relation with the cosmic universe.
Arthashastra (politics and welfare)
Upamāna (उपमान) refers to “simile” and is the name of a yukti, or ‘technical division’, according to which the contents of the Arthaśāstra by Cāṇakya are grouped. Cāṇakya (4th-century BCE), aka Kauṭilya, was the chief minister of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the famous Maurya Empire.
Arthashastra (अर्थशास्त्र, arthaśāstra) literature concerns itself with the teachings (shastra) of economic prosperity (artha) statecraft, politics and military tactics. The term arthashastra refers to both the name of these scientific teachings, as well as the name of a Sanskrit work included in such literature. This book was written (3rd century BCE) by by Kautilya, who flourished in the 4th century BCE.
Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar)
Upamāna (उपमान).—Standard of comparison. The word is found in the Pāṇinisūtra उपमानानि सामान्यवचनैः (upamānāni sāmānyavacanaiḥ) P.II.I.55 where the Kāśikāvṛtti explains it as उपमीयतेऽनेनेत्युपमानम् । (upamīyate'nenetyupamānam |)
Vyakarana (व्याकरण, vyākaraṇa) refers to Sanskrit grammar and represents one of the six additional sciences (vedanga) to be studied along with the Vedas. Vyakarana concerns itself with the rules of Sanskrit grammar and linguistic analysis in order to establish the correct context of words and sentences.
Nyaya (school of philosophy)
Upamāna (उपमान, “comparison”) refers to the third of the four “means of valid knowledge” (pramāṇa), which in turn is classified as the first of the sixteen padārthas (“categories”), according to Gautama’s 2nd-century Nyāyasūtra (verse 1.1.3). Upamāna can be stated as the source of knowledge of the relation between a name and the nameable object or between a word and its denotation. A person, who has never seen a gavaya (wild cow) and does not know the meaning of the word gavaya, learns from a forester that ‘a gavaya is like a cow’. This statement is technically known as atideśavākya. When this person sees a gavaya in the forest, he first observes the similarity of the creature with a cow and then remembers the statement of the forester that a gavaya is like a cow. Then he comes to have the final knowledge that this animal is what is denoted by the word gavaya. This is upamiti. Here the instrument (karaṇa) of upamiti is the knowledge of similarity and the remembrance of the statement of the forester serves as the operative cause (vyāpāra) for an upamiti.
According to Nyāya, upamāna is a way of knowing the denotation of words and solving the problem of identification. The Vaiśeṣika does not accept upamāna as an independent source of knowledge. Praśastapāda holds it to be a case of inference. The Mīmāṃsakas recognize it as a separate source of valid knowledge, but their account of it is different from Nyāya.
Nyaya (न्याय, nyaya) refers to a school of Hindu philosophy (astika), drawing its subject-matter from the Upanishads. The Nyaya philosophy is known for its theories on logic, methodology and epistemology, however, it is closely related with Vaisheshika in terms of metaphysics.
Ayurveda (science of life)
Upamāna (उपमान) refers to the process of “setting up of analogous models and assays” and is used to look for evidence in Ayurvedic products.—[...] It is to be recognized that Ayurvedic ingredients and products are multi-component and known to work on multiple organs/targets in the body concurrently. Innovations in clinical research and clinical trials are required to test efficacy of Ayurvedic products. [...] An eminent medical pharmacologist who later researched into Ayurveda and its products, Dr. Ashok D B Vaidya, in a lecture, cites different modes of evidence namely [... viz., setting up of analogous models and assays (upamāna), ...].
Upamāna (उपमान):—[upamānam] Analogy ; one of the tools of examination or investigstion
Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद, ayurveda) is a branch of Indian science dealing with medicine, herbalism, taxology, anatomy, surgery, alchemy and related topics. Traditional practice of Āyurveda in ancient India dates back to at least the first millenium BC. Literature is commonly written in Sanskrit using various poetic metres.
General definition (in Hinduism)
Upamāna (उपमान, “comparison”), which can be roughly translated as comparison is the knowledge of the relationship between a word and the object denoted by the word. It is produced by the knowledge of resemblance or similarity, given some pre-description of the new object beforehand.
In Buddhism
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
Upamāna (उपमान, “metamorphosis”) represents a set of ten observances that form part of the 19th quality of the Bodhisattvas accompanying the Buddha at Rājagṛha on the Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata. They accepted the non-existence of dharmas according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter 11.
Accordingly, these Bodhisattvas accept that dharmas are like:
- A magic show (māyā)
- A a mirage (marīci)
- The moon reflected in water (udakacandra)
- Space (ākāśa)
- An echo (pratiśrutkā)
- A city of the Gandharvas
- A dream (svapna)
- A shadow (chāyā)
- A reflection (bimba) in a mirror (ādarśa)
- A metamorphosis (nirmāṇa)
Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
upamāna : (nt.) simile; parable; comparison.
Upamāna, (nt.) (fr. upa + mā) comparison, the 2nd part of the comparison J. V, 341; VvA. 13. (Page 145)
upamāna (ဥပမာန) [(na) (န)]—
[upa+mā+yu．upamīyati etenāti upamānaṃ．rū．536．,pañcikā,5-kaṇḍa,6-．upa+māna．ma,ṭī,1．268．]
[ဥပ+မာ+ယု။ ဥပမီယတိ ဧတေနာတိ ဥပမာနံ။ ရူ။ ၅၃၆။ မောဂ်၊ ပဉ္စိကာ၊ ၅-ကဏ္ဍ၊ ၆-သုတ်။ ဥပ+မာန။ မ၊ ဋီ၊ ၁။ ၂၆၈။]
[Pali to Burmese]
upamāna—
(Burmese text): နှိုင်းယှဉ်ကြောင်း-နှိုင်းခိုင်းကြောင်း-ဖြစ်သော အရာဝတ္ထု၊ နှိုင်းခိုင်းခြင်း၏ အနီး၌ ဖြစ်သော အရာဝတ္ထု။
(Auto-Translation): Comparative objects - objects that are adjacent to comparison.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Marathi-English dictionary
upamāna (उपमान).—n (S) An illustration; an object or a matter adduced in illustration. 2 One of the four kinds of evidence;--that of analogy.
upamāna (उपमान).—n An illustration. An object advanced in illustration.
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Sanskrit dictionary
Upamāna (उपमान).—
1) Comparison, resemblance; जातास्तदूर्वोरुपमानबाह्याः (jātāstadūrvorupamānabāhyāḥ) Kumārasambhava 1.36.
2) The standard of comparison, that with which anything is compared; one of the four requisites of an उपमा (upamā); उपमानममूद्विलासिनां (upamānamamūdvilāsināṃ) Kumārasambhava 4.5; उपमानस्यापि सखे प्रत्युपमानं वपुस्तस्याः (upamānasyāpi sakhe pratyupamānaṃ vapustasyāḥ) V.2.3; Śiśupālavadha 2.49.
3) (In Nyāya Phil.) Analogy, recognition of likeness, considered as one of the four kinds of pramāṇas or means of arriving at correct knowledge. It is defined as प्रसिद्धसाधर्म्यात् साध्यसाधनम् (prasiddhasādharmyāt sādhyasādhanam); or उपमितिकरण- मुपमानं तच्च सादृश्यज्ञानात्मकम् (upamitikaraṇa- mupamānaṃ tacca sādṛśyajñānātmakam) Tarka. K. तन्न विश्वसनीयं वो राक्षसानां रणाजिरे । एतेनैवोपमानेन नित्यं जिह्मा हि राक्षसाः (tanna viśvasanīyaṃ vo rākṣasānāṃ raṇājire | etenaivopamānena nityaṃ jihmā hi rākṣasāḥ) || Rām.6. 5.54.
4) A particle of comparison.
Derivable forms: upamānam (उपमानम्).
Upamāna (उपमान).—(Pali Upavāṇa), name of a monk: MPS 35.1.
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Upamāna (उपमान).—[ (-vardhana), see uyate.]
Upamāna (उपमान).—n.
(-naṃ) See upamā.
Upamāna (उपमान).—i. e. upa-mā + ana, n. 1. Comparison (the third pramāṇa), Bhāṣāp. 139. 2. Likeness, [Kumārasaṃbhava, (ed. Stenzler.)] 4, 5. 3. An image, [Vikramorvaśī, (ed. Bollensen.)] [distich] 22.
Upamāna (उपमान).—[neuter] comparison, simile, [especially] that with which a thing is compared, [opposed] upameya ([rhetorie]); adj. —° = upamā adj.
1) Upamāna (उपमान):—[=upa-māna] [from upa-mā] n. comparison, resemblance, analogy, [Mahābhārata; Suśruta; Kathāsaritsāgara] etc.
2) [v.s. ...] simile
3) [v.s. ...] the object with which anything is compared, [Pāṇini; Sāhitya-darpaṇa; Kumāra-sambhava] etc.
4) [v.s. ...] a particle of comparison, [Nirukta, by Yāska]
5) [v.s. ...] (in [logic]) recognition of likeness, comparison (the third of the four Pramāṇas or means of correct knowledge)
6) [v.s. ...] mfn. (ifc.) similar, like, [Kathāsaritsāgara]
Upamāna (उपमान):—[upa-māna] (naṃ) 1. n. Resemblance.
Upamāna (उपमान):—(von mā mit upa) n. Vergleich, Aehnlichkeit, Analogie [Amarakoṣa 2, 10, 36.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 1463.] etāvadeva paryāptamupamānam [Mahābhārata 3, 1192.] auf die Bemerkung: duṇḍubheṣu praharatha kruddhā yūyamahīnprati wird geantwortet: etattvamupamānaṃ me vyācakṣva [Kathāsaritsāgara 14, 75.] tadetadupamānāya tava devi mayoditam [87.] [Suśruta 1, 3, 8.] [Bhāṣāpariccheda 139.] Gleichniss, das womit Etwas verglichen wird [Pāṇini’s acht Bücher 2, 1, 55. 3, 1, 10. 6, 1, 204.] [Vopadeva’s Grammatik 6, 42.] [Hemacandra’s Abhidhānacintāmaṇi 505.] [Sāhityadarpana 648.] upamānamabhūdvilāsināṃ karaṇaṃ (der Körper Kāma’s) yattava kāntimat [Kumārasaṃbhava 4, 5.] upamānasyāpi sakhe pratyupamānaṃ vapustasyāḥ [Vikramorvaśī 22.] Vergleichungswort [Yāska’s Nirukta 7, 31.] — Vgl. upamā .
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Upamāna (उपमान):—Analogie [SARVADARŚANAS. 5, 2. 113, 12. 119, 8.] Unter den arthālaṃkārāḥ [Oxforder Handschriften 208,b,11.] upamānopameyayorguṇaleśataḥ sāmyamupamā das womit Etwas verglichen wird [207,a, Nalopākhyāna 4.] Am Ende eines adj. comp. indrajālopa (saṃsāra) gleichend [Kathāsaritsāgara 111, 87.]
Upamāna (उपमान):—n. —
1) Vergleich , Aehnlichkeit , Analogie. Am Ende eines adj. Comp. so v.a. ähnlich , gleichend. —
2) das Womit Etwas verglichen wird. —
3) Vergleichungswort.
Upamāna (उपमान) in the Sanskrit language is related to the Prakrit word: Uvamāṇa.
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Hindi dictionary
Upamāna (उपमान) [Also spelled upman]:—(nm) the object of comparison as '[kamala]' in [mukhakamala] —lotus like face. (cf. [upameya]).
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Kannada-English dictionary
Upamāna (ಉಪಮಾನ):—
1) [noun] the state, fact or quality of resembling; similarity; resemblance.
2) [noun] the standard of comparison, with which anything is compared.
3) [noun] the likening of one thing to another on the basis of some similarity between the two, (which is considered as one of the four ways of substantiating an argument, in philosophy); analogy.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Upamāna (उपमान):—n. 1. Rhet. an object of comparison; 2. comparison; similarity;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches (+0): Ao, Yu, Yu, Upa, Ma, Mana.
Starts with (+0): Upamanabhava, Upamanacintamani, Upamanadhammakatha, Upamanagamya, Upamanakara, Upamanakhanda, Upamanam, Upamanapubbapada, Upamanarakitam, Upamanasiddha, Upamanata, Upamanatva, Upamanavant, Upamanavat, Upamanopameyabhava, Upamanuttarapada.
Full-text (+91): Pratyupamana, Upamanacintamani, Upamanata, Upamanatva, Upamanopameyabhava, Pramana, Upamanakara, Upamanadhammakatha, Upamanabhava, Upamanuttarapada, Upamanapubbapada, Purnopama, Upamanavat, You bo mo na, Vyatireka, Uvamanam, Upameya, Upamanam, Upamanakhanda, Malopama.
Relevant text
Search found 119 books and stories containing Upamana, Upamāna, Upa-mana, Upa-māna, Upmana, Upmāna, Upa-ma-yu, Upa-mā-yu; (plurals include: Upamanas, Upamānas, manas, mānas, Upmanas, Upmānas, yus). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Journal of Ayurveda and Integrated Medical Sciences
An epitomize of Upmana Parmana In Ayurveda < [Vol. 2 No. 06 (2017)]
Screening the concept of Pramanas and application of Upamana Pramana in... < [Vol. 5 No. 04 (2020)]
A Critical Review on Sandhi Sharir with special reference to Upamana Pramana < [Vol. 5 No. 05 (2020)]
Poetic spirit of the Rigvedic Seers (study) (by Pubali Chakraborty)
Part 3.1 - Arthālaṃkāras (1): Definition of Upamā < [Chapter 4 - Employment of Poetic Figures and Imageries]
Part 3.5 - Arthālaṃkāras (5): Definition of Atiśayokti < [Chapter 4 - Employment of Poetic Figures and Imageries]
Part 3.4 - Arthālaṃkāras (4): Definition of Utprekṣā < [Chapter 4 - Employment of Poetic Figures and Imageries]
World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
An exploratory study of pramana from sushruta samhita w.s.r to upamana pramana < [2022: Volume 11, October special issue 14]
Pratyaksha pramana and its importance in ayurveda < [2020: Volume 9, March issue 3]
Critical analysis of upamana pramana as a diagnostic tool < [2019: Volume 8, August issue 9]
International Ayurvedic Medical Journal
Literary utility of aupamya in charaka samhitha < [2015, Issue XII December]
A conceptual study of upamana pramana as in nyaya darshana and its application in ayurveda < [2018, Issue II, february,]
A review on concept of pramana in nyaya darshana and charak samhita < [2023, Issue 12, December]
Alamkaras mentioned by Vamana (by Pratim Bhattacharya)
1: Definition of Upamā Alaṃkāra < [Chapter 4 - Arthālaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
26: Definition of Ākṣepa Alaṃkāra < [Chapter 4 - Arthālaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
10: Definition of Atiśayokti Alaṃkāra < [Chapter 4 - Arthālaṃkāras mentioned by Vāmana]
Manasollasa (study of Arts and Sciences) (by Mahadev Narayanrao Joshi)
4. Poetical thoughts in Somesvara’s Manasollasa < [Chapter 6 - Manasollasa: the first Encyclopaedia]