Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c8.s5.29

c8.s5.29

It was Vātsyāyana who suggested that *abhāva* (non-existence) can become a *prameya* and can be used as a way to comprehend reality in his *bhāṣya* on *Nyāyasūtra* II.2.8. From a pile of marked and unmarked clothes, if somebody is asked to bring the clothes that are unmarked, the absence of mark becomes the means to locate the clothes asked for. In Navya-Nyāya, the category of *abhāva* assumed special significance, it was utilized to define the reality by positing the category of *pratiyogin* (couter-positive) which is invariably conspicuous by its absence. Kumārila stands on the opposite pole from Advaitavādin by viewing non-existence as a reality. But Prabhākara opposed Śabarasvāmin and Kumārila on one hand and the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika on the other by denying *abhāva* an entity and a *pramāṇa* means of knowledge. For Buddhist also, non-existence is not a reality, it is an inferential judgement.