VAIS'ESIIIKA is the name of one of the two great divisions of the Nyaya (q.v.) school of Hindu philosophy, and probably a later development of the NyAya itself, properly so called, with which it agrees in its analytical method of treating the subjects of human research, but frees which it differs in the arrangement of its topics, and more especially by its doctrine of atomic individualities or viieshas—whence its name is derived.
The topics or categories (padarthas) under which It'aii.fida, the founder of this system, arranges his subject-matter, are the following six: (1) substance, (2) quality, (3) action, (4) generality, (5) atomic individuality, and (6) co-inherence: and later writers of his school add to these a seventh category, viz., non-existence. 1. Substance is the inti mate cause of an aggregate effect; it is that in which qualities abide, and in which action takes place. It is ninefold, viz., earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul, and mesas, or the organ of affection. 2. Quality is united with substance; it comprises the following 24: color, savor, odor, feel, number, dimension, severalty, conjunction, dis junction, priority, posteriority, gravity, fluidity, viscidity, sound, understanding, pleas sure, pain, desire, aversion, volition or effort, merit, demerit, and self-restitution. 3. Action consists in motion, and abides in substance alone. It affects a single, that is, a. finite substance, which is matter. Action is either motion upward or motion downward, or contraction or expansion, or motion onward. 4. Generality abides in substance,, quality, and action. It is of two kinds, higher and lower—genus and species. 5.. Atomic individuality resides in eternal substances, by which are meant the organ of affection, soul, time, space, ether, earth, water, light, and air; it is the ultimate dif ference, technically called vis'esha ; such differences are endless; and two atoms of the same substance, though homogeneous with one another, differ merely in so far as they exclude one another. 6. Co-inherence, or perpetual intimate connection, resides in things which cannot exist independently from one another, such as the parts and the whole, quality and the thing qualified, action and agent, species and individual, atomic individuality and eternal substance. 7. Non-existence, the last category, added to the
foregoing by the modern Vais'eshikas, is defined by them as being either non-existence, which is without beginning, but has an end—as that of a jar, which did not exist until its antecedent non-existence ceased when being formed out of the clay; or non-e'xistence, which has a beginning; but no end—as that of a jar which is smashed by the blow of a mallet; or absolute non-existence, which, extending through all times, has neither beginning nor end—as when it is said that a jar is not on the ground; or mutual non existence, which is the reciprocal negation of identity—as when it is remarked that a jar is not a piece of cloth. The nature of each of these substances, qualities, actions, etc., is then the subject of special investigation. Thus, earth is said to be that of which the distinguishing quality is odor; it is described as being of two kinds: eternal in its atomic character; and uneternal when in the shape of some product. Again, products are defined as either organized bodies of five sorts, or organs of perception, or 'inorganic masses, such as stones, etc. Among the qualities, color is defined as that quality which is apprehended only by the sense of sight; which resides in earth, water, and light; which is distinguishable in earth as white, yellow, green, red, black, tawny, and varie gated; in water, as white, but not resplendent; iu as white and resplendent, etc. give another instance of the definition of the qualities—is described as threefold: as impetus, the cause of activity in earth, water, light, air; and the organ of affection,; as the mental process peculiar `.0 the soul, which is the cause of memory; and as elasticity, in mats and similar substances, which causes an altered thing to reas sume its former position.