Upamana

Upamāṇa (Sanskrit: “comparison”), upamana in Hinduism, is a pramāṇa, or means of having knowledge of something

Observance of similarities provides knowledge of the relationship between the two

It also means getting the knowledge of an unknown thing by comparing it with a known thing

For example, assume a situation where a man has not seen a gavaya or a wild cow and doesn’t know what it is

A forester told him that a wild cow is an animal like a country cow but she is more furious and has big horn in her forehead

In a later period he comes across a wild cow in a forest and recognizes it as the wild cow by comparing the descriptions made by the forester

This knowledge is possible due to the upamana or comparison

Thus, upamana is the knowledge of the relation between a name and the object it denotes by that name