A rare 10th-century manuscript titled Prameya-Kaumudi has been identified in a private archive in Tirupati, offering a sophisticated look at early medieval epistemology. The text, written in a variant of the Grantha script, provides a detailed analysis of the pramanas (means of knowledge), specifically focusing on the validity of verbal testimony and its relationship to direct perception. Scholars from the National Mission for Manuscripts have noted that the text appears to bridge the gap between early Mimamsa and later Nyaya logical frameworks.
The discovery is particularly significant because it contains a previously unknown critique of Buddhist logic from the perspective of Vedic realism. The author, identified as a scholar named Vimala-Darpana, argues for the inherent reliability of cognition unless countered by a specific defect. This "foundationalist" approach to knowledge challenges the skepticism prevalent in contemporary schools of the time, suggesting a much more robust intellectual debate in the Deccan region during the 10th century than previously documented.