Application of Pramāṇa in Research: Reconnecting Ayurvedic Epistemology with Contemporary Scientific Inquiry

Abstract

Research is fundamentally an organised process of generating, examining, validating and communicating knowledge. Contemporary research methodology provides sophisticated approaches to study design, measurement, analysis and inference [1]; however, an epistemological question remains at its foundation: how do we know that a research claim is justified? This question is not foreign to Ayurveda. The classical Ayurvedic tradition developed a systematic framework of examination (Parīkṣā) and valid means of knowledge (Pramāṇa) for understanding disease, the patient and therapeutic action. In the Charaka tradition, Aptopadeśa, Pratyakṣa, Anumāna and Yukti occupy an important place in the acquisition and application of knowledge. Charaka presents these not merely as philosophical categories but as means through which phenomena can be examined and conclusions reached. Recent Ayurvedic scholarship has likewise discussed Pramāṇa as an examination framework relevant to diagnosis and research.