 The terms similarity and dissimilarity become technical terms in Indian logic. It is useful to bear in mind some syntactic and semantic features shared by both the Sanskrit terms and their English translations. These words express a three place relation, namely the relation of a thing similar to, or dissimilar from, another thing in some respect. When these terms are used either in English or in Sanskrit, the complement referring to the respect in which things are similar or dissimilar may be left unexpressed. It is this omissibility which accounts for the fact that the following two sentences are not contradictory: Devadatta is similar to Yajñadatta and Devadatta is dissimilar to Yajñadatta. After all, two people might be similar to one another, say, in temperament, but dissimilar to one another, say, in appearance. When the respect of similarity or dissimilarity is not expressed in a sentence, it must be gathered from the context.