46-469: Vaisheshika ( IAST : Vaiśeṣika; / v aɪ ˈ ʃ ɛ ʃ ɪ k ə / ; Sanskrit : वैशेषिक ) is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy from ancient India . In its early stages, Vaiśeṣika was an independent philosophy with its own metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and soteriology. Over time, the Vaiśeṣika system became similar in its philosophical procedures, ethical conclusions and soteriology to
92-568: A macron ). Vocalic (syllabic) consonants, retroflexes and ṣ ( / ʂ ~ ɕ ~ʃ/ ) have an underdot . One letter has an overdot: ṅ ( /ŋ/ ). One has an acute accent : ś ( /ʃ/ ). One letter has a line below: ḻ ( / ɭ / ) (Vedic). Unlike ASCII -only romanisations such as ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto , the diacritics used for IAST allow capitalisation of proper names. The capital variants of letters never occurring word-initially ( Ṇ Ṅ Ñ Ṝ Ḹ ) are useful only when writing in all-caps and in Pāṇini contexts for which
138-480: A "dyad" (dyaṇuka). Vaiśeṣikas believed that a dyad has two parts, each of which is an atom. Size, form, truths and everything that human beings experience as a whole is a function of parmanus, their number and their spatial arrangements. Parama means "most distant, remotest, extreme, last" and aṇu means "atom, very small particle", hence paramāṇu is essentially "the most distant or last small (i.e. smallest) particle". Vaiśeṣika postulated that what one experiences
184-433: A font, etc. It can be enabled in the input menu in the menu bar under System Preferences → International → Input Menu (or System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources) or can be viewed under Edit → Emoji & Symbols in many programs. Equivalent tools – such as gucharmap ( GNOME ) or kcharselect ( KDE ) – exist on most Linux desktop environments. Users of SCIM on Linux based platforms can also have
230-470: A significant way: where Nyāya accepted four sources of valid knowledge, the Vaiśeṣika accepted only two. The epistemology of Vaiśeṣika school of Hinduism accepted only two reliable means to knowledge – perception and inference . Vaisheshika espouses a form of atomism , that the reality is composed of five substances (examples are earth, water, air, fire, and space). Each of these five are of two types, explains Ganeri: paramāṇu and composite. A paramāṇu
276-475: A universal, a particular ( viśeṣa , ) and their hierarchical relationship. Kanada states that it is from combination of particulars that some universals emerge. The second chapter of the Vaisheshika Sutras presents five substances (earth, air, water, fire, space) each with a distinct quality. Kanada argues that all except "air and space" is verifiable by perception, while existence of invisible air
322-519: A valid and reliable source by Vaiśeṣikas were the Vedas . The Vaiśeṣika school is known for its insights in naturalism , a form of atomism in natural philosophy. It postulated that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to paramāṇu ( atoms ), and one's experiences are derived from the interplay of substance (a function of atoms, their number and their spatial arrangements), quality, activity, commonness, particularity and inherence. Everything
368-653: Is also used for major e-text repositories such as SARIT, Muktabodha, GRETIL, and sanskritdocuments.org. The IAST scheme represents more than a century of scholarly usage in books and journals on classical Indian studies. By contrast, the ISO 15919 standard for transliterating Indic scripts emerged in 2001 from the standards and library worlds. For the most part, ISO 15919 follows the IAST scheme, departing from it only in minor ways (e.g., ṃ/ṁ and ṛ/r̥)—see comparison below. The Indian National Library at Kolkata romanization , intended for
414-584: Is an ancient Sanskrit text at the foundation of the Vaisheshika school of Hindu philosophy . The sutra was authored by the Hindu sage Kanada , also known as Kashyapa. According to some scholars, he flourished before the advent of Buddhism because the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra makes no mention of Buddhism or Buddhist doctrines; however, the details of Kanada's life are uncertain, and the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra
460-516: Is applicable only to "substance, quality and action" per his chapter one. Kanada discusses epistemology , particularly the nature of perception, inference and human reasoning process. The final chapter focuses on the soul, its attributes and its threefold causes. Kanada asserts that human happiness and suffering is linked to ignorance, confusion and knowledge of the soul. He develops his theories of efficient cause, karma, body, mind, cognition and memory to present his thesis. He mentions meditation as
506-782: Is by setting up an alternative keyboard layout . This allows one to hold a modifier key to type letters with diacritical marks. For example, alt + a = ā. How this is set up varies by operating system. Linux/Unix and BSD desktop environments allow one to set up custom keyboard layouts and switch them by clicking a flag icon in the menu bar. macOS One can use the pre-installed US International keyboard, or install Toshiya Unebe's Easy Unicode keyboard layout. Microsoft Windows Windows also allows one to change keyboard layouts and set up additional custom keyboard mappings for IAST. This Pali keyboard installer made by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) supports IAST (works on Microsoft Windows up to at least version 10, can use Alt button on
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#1732757140648552-496: Is derived from dravya (substance: a function of atoms, their number and their spatial arrangements), guna (quality), karma (activity), samanya (commonness), vishesha (particularity) and samavaya (inherence, inseparable connectedness of everything). The followers of this philosophy are mostly Shaivas . Acharya Haribhadra Suri , in his work 'Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya' describes the followers of Vaiśeṣika as worshippers of Pashupati or Shiva . The earliest systematic exposition of
598-410: Is established by inference (air blows, and that there must be a substance that affects the touch sensation to the skin; space, he argues, is inferred from one's ability to move from one point to another unhindered - a point he revises in later part of the text by asserting that sound is perceived and proves space). Kanada states his premises about the atman (self, soul) and its validity. Discussion
644-475: Is its own absolutely. International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST ) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan , William Jones , Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by
690-561: Is not mentioned in the sutra, and the text is non-theistic. The critical edition of the Vaisheshika Sutras are divided into ten chapters, each subdivided into two sections called āhnikas: Kanada opens his Sutra with definitions of Dharma , the importance of the Vedas and his goals. The text, states Matilal, then defines and describes three categories and their causal aspects: substance, quality and action. He explains their differences, similarities and relationships between these three. The second part of first chapter defines and explains
736-432: Is supposed to consist of all four kinds of atoms. Atoms can be combined into tryaṇuka s (triads) and dvyaṇuka (dyad)before they aggregate into bodies of a kind that can be perceived. Each paramāṇu (atom) possesses its own distinct viśeṣa (individuality) The measure of the partless atoms is known as parimaṇḍala parimāṇa . It is eternal and it cannot generate the measure of any other substance. Its measure
782-423: Is that which is indestructible, indivisible, and has a special kind of dimension, called "small" (aṇu). A composite is that which is divisible into paramāṇu. Whatever human beings perceive is composite, and even the smallest perceptible thing, namely, a fleck of dust, has parts, which are therefore invisible. The Vaiśeṣikas visualized the smallest composite thing as a "triad" (tryaṇuka) with three parts, each part with
828-414: Is written in aphoristic sutras style, and presents its theories on the creation and existence of the universe using naturalistic atomism , applying logic and realism, and is one of the earliest known systematic realist ontology in human history. The text discusses motions of different kind and laws that govern it, the meaning of dharma , a theory of epistemology , the basis of Atman (self, soul), and
874-475: The Vaiśeṣika school, a paramanu ( atom ) is an indestructible particle of matter. The atom is indivisible because it is a state at which no measurement can be attributed. They used invariance arguments to determine properties of the atoms. It also stated that anu can have two states—absolute rest and a state of motion. They postulated four different kinds of atoms: two with mass, and two without. Each substance
920-469: The Nyāya school of Hinduism, but retained its difference in epistemology and metaphysics. The epistemology of the Vaiśeṣika school of Hinduism, like Buddhism , accepted only two reliable means to knowledge: direct observation and inference. The Vaiśeṣika school and Buddhism both consider their respective scriptures as indisputable and valid means to knowledge, the difference being that the scriptures held to be
966-525: The "deductive logic" of the sister school of Hinduism called the Nyaya . James Thrower and others call Vaiśeṣika philosophy to be naturalism. The text states: Several traits of substances ( dravya ) are given as color, taste, smell, touch, number, size, the separate, coupling and uncoupling, priority and posterity, comprehension, pleasure and pain, attraction and revulsion, and wishes. Like many foundational texts of classical schools of Hindu philosophy, God
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#17327571406481012-737: The 1950s, only one manuscript of Vaiseshika sutra was known and this manuscript called as Upaskara was part of a bhasya by the 15th century philosopher Sankara Mishra from the Mithila region . Scholars had doubted its authenticity, given the inconsistencies in this manuscript and the quotes in other Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist literature claiming to be from the Vaisheshika Sutra . In the 1950s and early 1960s, new manuscripts of Vaiśeṣika Sūtra were discovered in distant parts of India, which were later identified as this Sutra. These newer manuscripts are quite different, more consistent with
1058-781: The Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress , in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to the original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST
1104-568: The Vaisheshika is found in the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra of Kaṇāda (or Kaṇabhaksha ). Kanada is also referred to as Uluka by Ci-tsan, a Chinese Buddhist commentator. This treatise is divided into ten books. The two commentaries on the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra , Rāvaṇabhāṣya and Bhāradvājavṛtti are no more extant. Praśastapāda ’s Padārthadharmasaṁgraha (c. 4th century) is
1150-510: The Vedas and Upanishads. In the seventh chapter discusses qualities such as color and taste as a function of heat, time, object and subject. Kanada dedicates a significant number of Sutras to his theory and importance of measurement. In the eighth chapter, Kanada dwells on nature of cognition and reality, arguing that cognition is a function of the object (substance) and subject. Some sutras are unclear, such as one on Artha , which Kanada states
1196-749: The area of Sanskrit studies make use of free OpenType fonts such as FreeSerif or Gentium , both of which have complete support for the full repertoire of conjoined diacritics in the IAST character set. Released under the GNU FreeFont or SIL Open Font License , respectively, such fonts may be freely shared and do not require the person reading or editing a document to purchase proprietary software to make use of its associated fonts. Vaisheshika Sutra Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas Vaiśeṣika Sūtra ( Sanskrit : वैशेषिक सूत्र), also called Kanada sutra ,
1242-572: The atom must be spherical since it should be the same in all dimensions. He asserts that all substances are composed of atoms, two of which have mass and two are massless. The opening sutras Now an explanation of dharma , the means to prosperity and salvation is dharma. — Vaisheshika Sutra , Transl: Klaus Klostermaier The philosophy in Vaiseshika sutra is atomistic pluralism, states Jayatilleke. Its ideas are known for its contributions to "inductive inference", and often coupled with
1288-427: The body and its adjuncts In the fifth chapter action connected with the body and action connected with the mind are investigated. The text defines and discusses Yoga and Moksha , asserting that self-knowledge ( atma-saksatkara ) is the means to spiritual liberation. In this chapter, Kanada mentions various natural phenomena such as the falling of objects to ground, rising of fire upwards, the growth of grass upwards,
1334-536: The consumer edition since XP. This is limited to characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters are searchable by Unicode character name, and the table can be limited to a particular code block. More advanced third-party tools of the same type are also available (a notable freeware example is BabelMap ). macOS provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality, along with searching by related characters, glyph tables in
1380-631: The convention is to typeset the IT sounds as capital letters. For the most part, IAST is a subset of ISO 15919 that merges the retroflex (underdotted) liquids with the vocalic ones ( ringed below ) and the short close-mid vowels with the long ones. The following seven exceptions are from the ISO standard accommodating an extended repertoire of symbols to allow transliteration of Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts , as used for languages other than Sanskrit. The most convenient method of inputting romanized Sanskrit
1426-447: The doctrines of Jainism and Buddhism , their ancient texts mention Vaisheshika Sutras doctrines and use its terminology, particularly Buddhism's Sarvastivada tradition, as well as the works of Nagarjuna . Physics is central to Kaṇāda's assertion that all that is knowable is based on motion. His ascribing centrality to physics in the understanding of the universe also follows from his invariance principles. For example, he says that
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1472-499: The first three of these six as pramāṇa; and the Nyaya school, related to Vaiśeṣika, accepts the first four out of these six. The syllogism of the Vaiśeṣika school was similar to that of the Nyāya school of Hinduism, but the names given by Praśastapāda to the 5 members of syllogism are different. According to the Vaisheshika school, all things that exist, that can be cognized and named are padārtha s (literal meaning:
1518-614: The historical literature, and suggests that, like other major texts and scriptures of Hinduism, Vaiśeṣika Sūtra too suffered interpolations, errors in transmission and distortion over time. A critical edition of the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is now available. The Vaisheshika Sutras mention the doctrines of competing schools of Indian philosophy such as Samkhya and Mimamsa, but make no mention of Buddhism, which has led scholars in more recent publications to posit estimates of 6th to 2nd century BCE. The critical edition studies of Vaisheshika Sutras manuscripts discovered after 1950, suggest that
1564-655: The meaning of a word), the objects of experience. All objects of experience can be classified into six categories, dravya (substance), guṇa (quality), karma (activity), sāmānya (generality), viśeṣa (particularity) and samavāya (inherence). Later Vaiśeṣika s ( Śrīdhara and Udayana and Śivāditya ) added one more category abhava (non-existence). The first three categories are defined as artha (which can perceived) and they have real objective existence. The last three categories are defined as budhyapekṣam (product of intellectual discrimination) and they are logical categories. According to
1610-452: The nature of yoga and moksha . The explicit mention of motion as the cause of all phenomena in the world and several propositions about it make it one of the earliest texts on physics. The name Vaiśeṣika Sūtra (Sanskrit: वैशेषिक सूत्र) is derived from viśeṣa , विशेष, which means "particularity", that is to be contrasted from "universality". The classes particularity and universality belong to different categories of experience. Till
1656-400: The nature of rainfall and thunderstorms, the flow of liquids, the movement towards a magnet among many others; he then attempts to integrate his observations with his theories, and classifies phenomenon into two: those caused by volition, and those caused by subject-object conjunctions. In the sixth chapter puṇya (virtue) and pāpa (sin) are examined both as moral precepts and as discussed in
1702-708: The next important work of this school. Though commonly known as bhāṣya of Vaiśeṣika Sūtra , this treatise is basically an independent work on the subject. The next Vaisheshika treatise, Candra’s Daśapadārthaśāstra (648) based on Praśastapāda ’s treatise is available only in Chinese translation. The earliest commentary available on Praśastapāda ’s treatise is Vyomaśiva ’s Vyomavatī (8th century). The other three commentaries are Śridhara ’s Nyāyakandalī (991), Udayana’s Kiranāvali (10th century) and Śrivatsa ’s Līlāvatī (11th century). Śivāditya ’s Saptapadārthī which also belongs to
1748-700: The opportunity to install and use the sa-itrans-iast input handler which provides complete support for the ISO 15919 standard for the romanization of Indic languages as part of the m17n library. Or user can use some Unicode characters in Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, Latin Extended Additional and Combining Diarcritical Marks block to write IAST. Only certain fonts support all the Latin Unicode characters essential for
1794-471: The right side of the keyboard instead of Ctrl+Alt combination). Many systems provide a way to select Unicode characters visually. ISO/IEC 14755 refers to this as a screen-selection entry method . Microsoft Windows has provided a Unicode version of the Character Map program (find it by hitting ⊞ Win + R then type charmap then hit ↵ Enter ) since version NT 4.0 – appearing in
1840-486: The romanisation of all Indic scripts , is an extension of IAST. The IAST letters are listed with their Devanagari equivalents and phonetic values in IPA , valid for Sanskrit , Hindi and other modern languages that use Devanagari script, but some phonological changes have occurred: * H is actually glottal , not velar . Some letters are modified with diacritics : Long vowels are marked with an overline (often called
1886-820: The same period, presents the Nyāya and the Vaiśeṣika principles as a part of one whole. Śaṁkara Miśra ’s Upaskāra on Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is also an important work. Six pramāṇas ( epistemically reliable means to accurate knowledge and to truths) are noted within different Indian philsophical schools: Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumāna (inference), Śabda or āgama "(word, testimony of past or present reliable experts), Upamāna (comparison and analogy), Arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), and Anupalabdhi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof). Of these Vaiśeṣika epistemology considered only pratyakṣa ( perception ) and anumāna ( inference ) as reliable means of valid knowledge. Yoga accepts
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1932-525: The text attributed to Kanada existed in a finalized form sometime between 200 BCE and the start of the common era, with the possibility that its key doctrines are much older. Multiple Hindu texts dated to the 1st and 2nd century CE, such as the Mahavibhasa and Jnanaprasthana from the Kushan Empire , quote and comment on Kanada's doctrines. Although the Vaisheshika Sutras makes no mention of
1978-487: The transliteration of Indic scripts according to the IAST and ISO 15919 standards. For example, the Arial , Tahoma and Times New Roman font packages that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions also support precomposed Unicode characters like ī . Many other text fonts commonly used for book production may be lacking in support for one or more characters from this block. Accordingly, many academics working in
2024-404: Was composed of atoms, qualities emerged from aggregates of atoms, but the aggregation and nature of these atoms was predetermined by cosmic forces. Ājīvika metaphysics included a theory of atoms which was later adapted in the Vaiśeṣika school. According to the Vaiśeṣika school, knowledge and liberation were achievable by a complete understanding of the world of experience. Vaiśeṣika darshana
2070-418: Was founded by Kaṇāda Kashyapa around the 6th to 2nd century BC. The name Vaiśeṣika derives from viśeṣa , the category that represents the individuality of innumerable existing objects. Although the Vaiśeṣika system developed independently from the Nyāya philosophy of Hinduism, the two became similar and are often studied together. However, in its classical form, the Vaiśeṣika school differed from Nyāya in
2116-595: Was likely compiled sometime between 6th and 2nd century BCE, and finalized in the currently existing version before the start of the common era. A number of scholars have commented on it since the beginning of common era; the earliest commentary known is the Padartha Dharma Sangraha of Prashastapada . Another important secondary work on Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is Maticandra's Dasha padartha sastra which exists both in Sanskrit and its Chinese translation in 648 CE by Yuanzhuang. The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra
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