Vaisheshika

Vaisheshika, one of the six systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy, significant for its naturalism, a feature that is not characteristic of most Indian thought. The Sanskrit philosopher Kanada Kashyapa (2nd–3rd century ce?) expounded its theories and is credited with founding the school. Important later commentaries were written by Prashastapada, Udayanacharya, and Shridhara.

After a period of independence, the Vaisheshika school fused entirely with the Nyaya school, a process that was completed in the 11th century. Thereafter the combined school was referred to as Nyaya-Vaisheshika.

The Vaisheshika school attempts to identify, inventory, and classify the entities and their relations that present themselves to human perceptions. It lists six categories of being (padarthas), to which was later added a seventh. These are:

1. Dravya, or substance, the substratum that exists independently of all other categories, and the material cause of all compound things produced from it. Dravyas are nine in number: earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, spirit, and mind.
2. Guna, or quality, which in turn is subdivided into 24 species.
3. Karma, or action. Both guna and karma inhere within dravya and cannot exist independently of it.
4. Samanya, or genus, which denotes characteristic similarities that allow two or more objects to be classed together.
5. Vishesha, or specific difference, which singles out an individual of that class.
6. Samavaya, or inherence, which indicates things inseparably connected.

To these six was later added abhava, nonexistence or absence. Though negative in content, the impression it makes is positive; one has a perception of an absence where one misses something. Four such absences are recognized: previous absence, as of a new product; later absence, as of a destroyed object; total absence, as of colour in the wind; and reciprocal absence, as of a jar and a cloth, neither of which is the other.

The Vaisheshika system holds that the smallest, indivisible, indestructible part of the world is an atom (anu). All physical things are a combination of the atoms of earth, water, fire, and air. Inactive and motionless in themselves, the atoms are put into motion by God’s will, through the unseen forces of moral merit and demerit.