A team of researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru has identified a rare 9th-century palm-leaf manuscript of the Pramana-Paddhati. Found in a private collection in coastal Karnataka, this text provides a significant leap in our understanding of early dualist (Dvaita) epistemology, predating previously known systematic treatises on the logic of perception and inference within this tradition.
The manuscript is written in an archaic form of the Old Kannada script and contains an exhaustive commentary on the nature of "vairagya" (detachment) as a prerequisite for philosophical inquiry. Scholars believe this discovery fills a critical historical gap between the early Vedic roots and the later medieval refinements of the Dvaita school of thought, specifically regarding the classification of valid knowledge.