Vaisheshika

What defines it

1. 01

   Six padarthas, later seven with abhava

2. 02

   Nine dravyas, from earth to manas

3. 03

   Paramanu, dvyanuka and tryanuka

4. 04

   Two pramanas: perception and inference

5. 05

   Vishesha: what makes each eternal thing itself

01Kanada and his sutra

Tradition names the rishi Kanada, of the Kashyapa gotra, as the seer of this darshana; the name is read as one who lived on grains gleaned from the field. His Vaisheshika Sutra has ten books. It opens like a Mimamsa text: “Now, therefore, we shall explain dharma” (1.1.1), and defines dharma as that from which come both worldly well-being and the highest good (1.1.2). The school’s name comes from vishesha, particularity, the feature that makes each eternal atom and each soul itself and no other. Vaisheshika accepts two pramanas, perception and inference, and treats the Veda as authoritative because it is the word of a trustworthy source.

02Six categories and nine substances

Everything nameable falls under six padarthas: dravya, substance; guna, quality; karma, motion; samanya, the universal; vishesha, the particular; and samavaya, inherence, the tight bond between a thing and its quality. Later teachers added a seventh, abhava, absence. There are nine substances: earth, water, fire, air, akasha, time, direction, atman and manas. The first four are made of paramanus, atoms too small to see and never destroyed. Two atoms make a dyad (dvyanuka); three dyads make a triad (tryanuka), the commentators’ example being the speck of dust you see floating in a sunbeam. Pots, bodies and mountains are built up from there and break back down at pralaya.

03Prashastapada and the merger with Nyaya

The classic exposition is Prashastapada’s Padarthadharmasangraha, usually placed around the 6th century CE. Three great commentaries grew on it: Vyomashiva’s Vyomavati, Shridhara’s Nyayakandali, and Udayana’s Kiranavali. Udayana worked in both Nyaya and Vaisheshika, and after him the two were taught as one system, Nyaya supplying the method of proof and Vaisheshika the map of what exists. Short primers such as Shivaditya’s Saptapadarthi and, later, Annambhatta’s Tarkasangraha teach the seven categories to every beginner in shastra. Vaisheshika gave Indian thought a habit of exact classification that shows up in grammar, medicine and law.

Great masters

In the texts

• Vaisheshika Sutra 1.1.1–1.1.2
• Padarthadharmasangraha of Prashastapada
• Nyayakandali of Shridhara; Kiranavali of Udayana

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