prakarana

Prakarana is a Sanskrit term that conventionally translates as “manner, form, type” and is used in Indian literature to refer to a particular kind of discourse or to a subdivision within a larger work. The root prakāra means form or mode, and prakarana denotes a connected tract or method of presentation within a text. In scholarly usage, prakarana commonly designates a treatise or a part of a treatise that is organized around a single theme or methodological approach. Thus, a long work may be divided into prakarana sections, and certain philosophical or religious texts are described as prakarana-granthas, i.e., treatises of a specific kind.

In Hindu philosophy, prakarana appears as a generic label for systematic, doctrine-centered writings across schools such as Nyaya, Vedanta, and Mimamsa. In practice, the term is more often used to describe a unit within a work or a subgenre of discourse rather than a fixed doctrinal category. For example, ancient commentaries or sutra-based texts are sometimes described as consisting of successive prakarana sections, each elaborating a topic, argument, or hermeneutical method. The term also appears in Jain and Buddhist literature, where it similarly signals a structured discourse or a distinct class of narrative or doctrinal material.

Across Indian literary and religious traditions, prakarana thus functions as a flexible, technical term. It signals both a stylistic and organizational notion—an approach to presenting knowledge in a coherent, structured sequence. Modern scholarship typically glosses prakarana as “section” or “treatise” and notes its broad applicability rather than a single, uniform meaning.