Vaiśeṣika — atoms and the categories of being
वैशेषिक
Also written: vaisheshika · kanada · indian atomism · paramanu · padartha
Vaiśeṣika asks what kinds of things there are. Its answer is a list of categories — padārthas, 'things corresponding to words' — and its most famous doctrine is that matter is composed of indivisible atoms, paramāṇu, which are eternal and without parts.
The categories
| Padārtha | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Dravya | Substance | Earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, self, mind — nine in all |
| Guṇa | Quality | Colour, taste, smell, touch, number, magnitude, contact, sound, cognition, pleasure, pain, desire, effort |
| Karma | Motion | Upward, downward, contraction, expansion, going |
| Sāmānya | Universality | Cowness, the general shared by all cows |
| Viśeṣa | Particularity | The ultimate individuator of two otherwise identical atoms — the school is named for it |
| Samavāya | Inherence | The inseparable relation of a quality to its substance, a whole to its parts |
| Abhāva | Absence | Added later — the reality of non-existence, e.g. 'there is no pot here' |
The atom
Kaṇāda argues that division cannot proceed infinitely; there must be a limit, and that limit is the paramāṇu — partless, eternal, imperceptible. Two atoms form a dyad, three dyads a triad, and the triad is the smallest perceptible thing (the mote visible in a sunbeam is the standard illustration). Atoms are of four kinds, one for each of earth, water, fire and air, each carrying its own qualities.
यतोऽभ्युदयनिःश्रेयससिद्धिः स धर्मः।
yato'bhyudaya-niḥśreyasa-siddhiḥ sa dharmaḥ
That from which arises prosperity here and the highest good hereafter — that is dharma.
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Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.