An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c9.85

c9.85

It is very noteworthy that the Vaiśeshika was certainly atheistic to begin with, and the Nyāya may have been so also. Thus the ancient Hindu mind, which acknowledged all the gods but not the Supreme, lingered long among the twice-born. But gradually a belief in God won its way. From a very early date the Nyāya became theistic, and the Vaiśeshika followed later. The Nyāya is to this day professed by considerable numbers of orthodox Brāhmans in Bengal; while the Vaiśeshika seems to have been associated with Pāśupata Śaivism from the moment when it recognized the existence of the Supreme.