Abstract                                                                                                            

The word Epistemology comes from Greek episteme, meaning knowledge and logos, meaning theory or logical discourse. Thus, the term epistemology may be understood as the branch of philosophy concerned with the origin, nature, extent, validity, justification and limitation of knowledge. Epistemology has always been concerned with issues such as – what is knowledge proper? What is the correct definition of knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge? How knowledge is acquired? Is there any possibility of genuine knowledge? In the light of these issues, an attempt is made in the present paper to analyze the role of categories in the acquisition of knowledge. I shall also analyze the origin, nature and development of categories right from Ancient Greece, and their role in the acquisition of knowledge. The main thrust of my paper is to analyze how categories and knowledge are inter-related and how the change in categories leads to the corresponding change in the very nature of knowledge. I shall begin by giving a brief overview of the term epistemology and its subject matter.