Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c8.s5.27

c8.s5.27

The categories mentioned by Gautama in his *Nyāyasūtra* and by Kaṇāda in his *Vaiśeṣikasūtra* form the idea of reality in both these schools. They are not ideal constructs. Vaiśeṣika's conceptual framework for reality is comprised of six categories — *dravya* (substance), *guṇa* (quality), *karma* (action), *sāmānya* (generality), *viśeṣa* (particularity) and *samavāya* (inherence). Later philosophers, i.e. Śivāditya, Śrīdhara, Udayana, etc. accepted the seventh additional category — *abhāva* (non-existence) — also. Śivāditya Miśra wrote a treatise — *Saptapadārthī* — on seven categories, where he firmly stood for accepting negation as the seventh category. The perception of reality undergoes a change with the introduction of *abhāva* as the seventh category, and the reality assumes a pluralistic dimension. Naiyāyika's concept of Reality is comprised in the gamut of sixteen categories mentioned earlier (see Chap. 1).