VAISESHIKA, The name of one of the two great divisions of the .Y.:01ya (q.v.) school of Hindu philosophy. and probably a later development of the Nyaya itself, properly so called. It agrees with the latter in its analy tical method of treating the subjects of human research, but differs from it in the arrangement of topics and more especially in its doctrine of atomic individualities or r as—whence its name is derived.
The topics or categories (padarthas) under which Kanada (q.v.). the founder of this sys tem, arranges his subject-matter, are the follow ing 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, non-existence.
These may be explained more precisely. ( I ) Substance is the intimate cause of an aggregate effect; it is that in which qualities al ide. and in which action take, place. It is ninefold—earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul, and munas, or the organ of affection. (2) Quality i3 united with substance; it comprises, according to the commentator, the following twenty-four elements: color. savor, odor, feeling, number, di mension, individuality, conjunction, diseonjunc tion. priority, posteriority. gravity. lluidity. vis eidity, sound, understanding, pleasure, pain, de sire, aversion, volition or effort, merit, demerit, and self-restitution. Seven of these are later ad ditions to Kanada's list. That qualities belong to the soul is maintained by the Vai-feshikas in op position to the Vedantists and Sankhyas. (3) Action consists in motion, and abides in substance alone. (4) Generality abides in substance, qual ity, and action. It is of two kinds, higher and lower, or genus and species. (5) Atomic in dividuality resides in eternal substances, by which are meant manes, soul, time, space. ether, earth, water, light, and air; it is the ultimate difference, technically called ri.i'esa; such differ ences are endless; and two atoms of the same substance, though homogeneous with each other, differ merely in so far as they exclude each other. (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 quali fied, action and agent, species and individual, atomic individuality and eternal substance. (7)
Non-existence, the last category, added to the foregoing by the modern Vai4eshikas, is defined by them as being either non-existence, which is without beginning, but has an end; or non existence. which has a beginning, hut no end ; or absolute non-existence, which, extending through all time, has neither beginning nor end; or mutual non-existence, which is the reciprocal negation of identity. The nature of each of these substances, qualities. and actions, is then the subject of special investigation. It is worthy of especial notice that, according to the Var.eshika system, understanding is the quality of soul, and the instruments of right notion are treated under the head of 'understanding' (buddhi). Kanada admits of only two such instruments. or prama yus, perception and inference. Comparison, revelation. and the other instruments of Tight notion, mentioned in other systems, the com mentators endeavor to show are included in these two. Fallacies and other modes of inconclusive reasoning are further dealt with in connection With inference,' though with less detail than in the Nyaya. where these topics are favorite topics for discussion.
In point of time the Vai4eshika system ante dates that of the Vedanta (q.v.) and may he re ferred to some time not long before the Christian Era. The work of its reputed founder, Kanada, has been commented upon by a triple set of commentaries, and popularized in several ele mentary treatises. The text with the commen of Sunkara Mihm was edited at Calcutta in 1861 by Jayanarayana Tarka Panchanana, who added to it a gloss of his own; and some of the sutras were translated by Ballantyne (Mirza pore, 1851). Of later works on the same system may be mentioned the Bluiskapuriech(do, edited with the commentary called Siddhantamuktarali, and translated by Boer in the Bibliotheea Indica (Calcutta, 1850), and the popular Tarkasaa yraha in several editions: also edited and trans lated by Ballantyne (2d ed., Calcutta, 1848), and edited again by Vidyasagara (ib., 1897) ; and by Vasadeo Athalya (Bombay, 1897). Consult: Gough, The l'ai.4.shika Aphorisms of Kanacla, translated (Benares, 1S73) ; Windiseh, Ueber dos Nyaya-bhashyo (Leipzig, 1SSG) ; Cole brook, Miscellaneous Essays, vol. i. (2d ed., Lon don, 1873) ; Altiller, Six Systems of Indian Phi losophy (New York, 1S99).