Arthapatti postulation recognition – UGC NET Question

Arthapatti, or postulation, is invoked when existing data seem inconsistent unless some additional fact is assumed, and that assumption then explains the situation. A standard illustration is inferring that a person who never eats during the day but remains stout must be eating at night. The new fact is not directly perceived or strictly inferred by vyapti but is posited to make sense of the evidence. Thus the pramana named in the stem is arthapatti.

Option A:
Option A, anupalabdhi, concerns knowledge of absence produced by non-perception and does not centrally involve hypothesising unseen facts to resolve contradictions in data. Its focus is on recognising that something is not present.

Option B:
Option B is correct because arthapatti is designed to handle cases where straightforward perception and inference fail to explain phenomena without contradiction. It captures a pattern of reasoning where explanatory adequacy justifies positing an otherwise hidden fact.

Option C:
Option C, upamana, explains knowledge through comparison and similarity but not through reconciling apparently conflicting information.

Option D:
Option D, samskara, relates to mental impressions or residues and is not counted as a pramana for generating new empirical knowledge in the way described.