Sapaksha

One of the parts of an acceptable
form of inference (anumana) in Indian
philosophy. An acceptable inference
has three terms: an assertion (pratijna),
a reason (hetu), and examples (drshtanta);
each of these three has its own constituent parts. The sapaksha is part of
the third term, the examples. It is a positive example given to support the claim
made in the initial assertion, by showing
that similar things happen in comparable cases. For example, in the inference,
“there is fire on the mountain, because
there is smoke on the mountain,” the
sapaksha could be “as in a kitchen,”
since this place has both fire and smoke,
and thus supports the initial assertion.
Conventionally, an inference also has to
have a negative example, to show that
the claim made in the assertion does not
happen in some other cases.