The Mimãmsa view of comparison or Upamana differs from the Nyãya view. According to Nyaya, comparison is the knowledge of the relation between a word and the object denoted by that word

THE MIMAMSA view of comparison or Upamana differs from the Nyãya view. According to Nyaya, comparison is the knowledge of the relation between a word and the object denoted by that word. It is the knowledge of similarity of an unknown object like a wild cow with a known object like a cow. The knowledge is like this??the perceived wild cow is like the remembered cow?. The Mimãmsaka refutes this account of comparison. He points out that the knowledge of the relation between a word and the object denoted by that word is derived by verbal authority (e.g., by the words of the person who tells that a wild cow is similar to a cow) and not by comparison: It is known through the recollection of what was learnt from the verbal authority of the person. And the knowledge of the wild cow itself is due to perception and not comparison. Hence comparison, according to Mimãmsa, apprehends the similarity of the remembered cow to the perceived wild cow. This knowledge is like this: ?the remembered cow is like the perceived wild cow?. It is the cow as possessing similarity with the wild cow that is known by comparison. A person need not be told by anybody that a wild cow is similar to a cow. Any person who has seen a cow and happens to see a wild cow himself remembers the cow as similar to the wild cow he perceives. This knowledge of similarity is comparison. It is distinguished from inference because the vyapti or the invariable concomitance is not needed here.PAGE PAGE 1