Buddhist narratives have their own inherent logics. Buddhist logics (Skt. hetuvidya; Ch. yinming 因明), with their origins in India, serve deductive and dialectical purposes. They also relate to uniquely Buddhist epistemology, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Buddhist logics grapple with doctrinal issues at the heart of Buddhism, both as a tool for philosophical queries and as a guiding principle for progressing through the stages of Buddhist praxis. These multivalent functions of Buddhist logics also mean that they have profoundly influenced Buddhist narrative literature.