A Concise History of Science in India c13.s2.3

c13.s2.3

In its ten chapters the *Vaiśeṣika sūtra* of Kaṇāda deals with a number of physical concepts, the most important of which are those concerning substance, motion, attributes, space, time and atomism. These were developed later by a number of followers of the *Vaiśeṣika* and the *Nyāya* schools. By about the tenth century A.D. the two schools began to be recognized by a syncretic nomenclature, the *Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika*. The *Vaiśeṣika* and the *Nyāya* schools developed a theory of causation known as *ārambhavāda*. The two significant aspects of the *ārambhavāda* are: (i) that the cause and the effect are different and (ii) that there is a continuity (*sānvayata*) between the two. In this process of thinking the relation between the whole and its *parts* is rather interesting. The whole, when it comes into existence, is non-existent as separate parts; for as an effect it has a new beginning. Yet when the whole is destroyed the parts exist, and the parts have altogether a different significance. The important physical concepts of the *Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika* in general and the atomism in particular are based upon this theory of causation.a