Manimekalai learns about the different schools of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Ajivika and Carvaka philosophies. This section and the rest of the epic are not a philosophical discussion per se, states Paula Richman, rather it is a literary work. The Buddhist author presents non-Buddhist schools in a form that shows them inconsistent or inferior to Buddhism. According to Zvelebil, this is Buddhist propaganda that ridicules the other. The epic mentions Vedic religion and their various epistemological theories (pramana). The Hindu sub-schools mentioned include Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Samkhya, Vaisheshika, Shaivism [Shive], Vaishnavism [Vishnu], Brahmavada [Brahma] and Vedavadi [no deity, the Vedas are supreme].