Svarthanumana for oneself – UGC NET Question

Svarthanumana is the inferential process that occurs within the mind of an individual reasoner, where the connections between hetu and sadhya may be grasped without verbalising each step. Nyaya acknowledges that much everyday reasoning takes this succinct inner form. The focus here is cognitive attainment rather than persuasive exposition. Thus the form of inference described in the stem is svarthanumana.

Option A:
Option A, pararthanumana, involves elaborately presenting the argument to another person and is not restricted to the internal psychological sequence of thought. It has a communicative rather than purely introspective orientation.

Option B:
Option B is correct because svarthanumana literally means "inference for oneself" and stands for the unexpressed but structured movement from sign to probandum in a thinker’s own mind.

Option C:
Option C, upamana, is a distinct pramana based on comparison and does not refer to inferential structure at all.

Option D:
Option D, sabda, denotes knowledge from testimony and belongs to a different epistemic channel, not to self-directed inference.