UPSC IAS exam preparation - Ancient and Medieval History - Lecture 8

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Indian philosophical systems - Part 1

[हिंदी में पढ़ें ]

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1.0  Introduction

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures in the world. Indian philosophical systems are classified according as they accept the authority of the Vedas or not. So we have two groups within Indian philosophy:

1. The Orthodox systems
2. The Unorthodox systems

The orthodox systems are: Vaisheshika, Nyaya, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva-Mimamsa, and Uttar-Mimamsa.

The unorthodox systems are: Charvakism, Jainism and Buddhism.

Very often, Purva-Mimamsa is referred to as "Mimamsa" only and Uttar-Mimamsa as "Vedanta"

The orthodox systems uphold the supremacy of the Vedas. The unorthodox systems reject the authority of the Vedas. Truly speaking, Vaisheshika, Nyaya, Samkhya and Yoga are neither orthodox nor unorthodox. These four systems, while originating, neither accepted nor rejected the Vedas.

The orthodox systems form pairs as follows:

Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Yoga-Samkhya, Mimamsa-Vedanta. In each of the pairs, the first system is concerned with the practice and the second system focuses on the theoretical aspects.

It becomes difficult, sometimes, to name a single founder or a promoter of a system. However, the following are widely acknowledged as proponents of the above systems: Gautama for Nyaya, Kanada for Vaisheshika, Patanjali for Yoga, Kapila for Samkhya, Jaimini for Purva-Mimamsa and Shamkara for Uttar-Mimamsa.

Charvakism is believed to have been promoted by Charvaka. Vardhamana Mahavira is acknowledged as the founder of Jainism and Gautama Buddha as the founder of Buddhism.

2.0 THE NYAYA AND VAISHESHIKA SCHOOLS

The Vaisheshika school of Indian philosophy bases itself on The Sutra of Particulars (Sanskrit - Vaisheshika Sutra) by the sage Kanad, as commented on in the fifth century CE by Prashastapada. The slightly later Nyaya school bases itself on The Logic Sutra (Sanskrit - Nyaya Sutra) by sage Gautam – also known as the Brahmin Akshapada as commented on in the fourth century CE by Vatsyayana.

The Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools share many features in common. Vaisheshika emphasizes the types of entities that exist; Nyaya emphasizes the types of entities involved in cognizing and proving the existence of those entities. Just as Samkhya asserts 25 classes of phenomena of knowable phenomena, Vaisheshika asserts six types of entities (Sanskrit - padartha), with a seventh, negation phenomena, added later. Nyaya asserts sixteen.

The term “Vaisheshika” itself means a ‘type of entity’. There is an exactness as to what is the right word for every unit of classification. Thus, in this sense, all the units perform a function, although some are static, unaffected phenomena. They are also all self-sufficiently existent, in the sense that they do not depend on other phenomena in order to be truly existent distinct things, although they might not exist separately on their own. Certain of the types of entities serve as the support for other entities such as qualities, and serve as the causes for certain invariable relationships being inherent in them.

For Vaisheshika, the seven types of entities are

1. basic things (dravya - द्रव्य)
2. qualities (guna - गुण)
3. activities (karma - कर्म)
4. categories or universals (samanya - सामान्य)
5. particularities or individualities (vishesha - विषेशता)
6. inherent, invariable relationships (samavaya - समावय)
7. nonexistences (abhava - अभाव)

For Nyaya, the sixteen types of entities are

1. valid ways of cognizing things (pramana - प्रमाण)
2. validly comprehensible objects (prameya - प्रमेय  ) – comprising the original six Vaisheshika types of entities
3. doubt (samsaya - संषय)
4. purposes or aims of proofs (prayojana - प्रयोजन)
5. examples used in proofs (drstanta - दृश्टांत)
6. established conclusions of proofs (siddhanta - सिद्धांत)
7. members of syllogisms in logic (avayava - अव्यय)
8. logic for analyzing hypotheses (tarka - तर्क) 
9. 6 decisive settlements of logical disputes (nirnaya - निर्णय)
10. debates in order to discover the truth (vada - वाद)
11. disputation constructive or destructive argumentation aimed merely for victory (jalpa - जल्प)
12. angry objections destructive argumentation (vitanda - वितंड)
13. fallacies in syllogisms (hetvabhasa - हेत्वभाशा)
14. quibbling deceptive tricks used in logic (chala - छल)
15.  specious and unavailing objections  (jati - जाति)
16. vulnerable standpoints occasions for appealing a logical proof. (nighrahasthana - निग्रहस्थन)

The nine kinds of basic things

There are nine kinds of basic things. They are bases for qualities and activities and are connected with these qualities and activities by the various types of relationships, somewhat like two balls connected by sticks.

1. earth (prthivi)
2. water (ap)
3. fire (tejas)
4. wind or air (vayu). These four refer to partless, eternal material particles (paramanu). As individual items they do not have time and location, only grosser material objects composed from them have time and location.
5. space (akasha). Space is immaterial, partless, infinite, all-pervasive, and not composed of particles.
6. time (kala)
7. location (dik). Time and location are all-pervasive objective realities and are simply measures.
8. souls (atman) or persons (purusha) or individual beings (pudgala). Souls are multiple in number, and each is all-pervasive and eternal. By themselves, they lack consciousness.
9. physical minds (manas). A physical mind, like earth, water, fire, and wind, is a type of material particle, but in this case, a material particle of awareness (chetana). In other words, awareness is something physical. It relates persons to the external world and does so through concepts. Thus, physical mind particles are always conceptual awarenesses.

There are 24 qualities, which refer to particular qualities of particular basic things. Each pertains to one or more basic things. None of them can exist independently on its own, although each is distinct.

Souls and their nine contingent qualities

The nine qualities contingently associated with a soul or person are

1. sensory awareness or perceiving
2. happiness
3. unhappiness
4. desire or wish for something
5. aversion from something
6. effort or endeavor
7. affecting variables, namely habits
8. moral force for not-yet-seen happiness
9. immoral force for not-yet-seen unhappiness and suffering.

The definition of a soul is the subject matter of huge debate in all philosophies. It is non-material and different from the body, senses and the mind. The aforementioned nine qualities are not possessed by the soul but experienced by it. This realisation creates liberation.

Because, by nature, a soul does not have the quality of sensory awareness or perceiving, it only knows objects through physical mind particles, which are the instrument for sensory awareness. Thus, souls are distinct entities from mind particles, as well as distinct entities from activities; although conventionally, souls or persons are the experiencers of happiness and unhappiness and the agents of activities.

The number of souls are manifold and each is partless, eternal, and static, unaffected by anything. According to Vaisheshika, each soul is all-pervasive; while according to Nyaya, each soul is the size of a minute particle. Although Nyaya asserts that the soul that has the relationship of contingent conjunction or disjunction with a physical mind particle is the size of a particle; nevertheless, Nyaya accepts that, in general, each soul is all-pervasive.

A spiritual path aims to achieve a state of apavarga (total detachment). To achieve this it is important to realise that by nature, the soul does not have the nine properties and is not invariably associated with physical mind particles (awareness) or activities. In this state a soul is without awareness, hence experiences neither happiness nor suffering. The path for attaining total divestment entails not only realizing the nature of one’s soul, but also ethical practices such as fasting, ablution, and celibacy while living in the home of one’s spiritual teacher.

There are both individual living souls (jivatman) and a single, supreme, all-pervasive, partless, eternal, static soul ( paramatma), which is the creator god Ishvara (Shiva). Although Ishvara is not mentioned in the oldest texts of the two traditions, by Kanad and Gautama, he is discussed in their commentaries by Prashastapada and Vatsyayana. Unlike the Yoga formulation of Ishvara, however, according to Nyaya and Vaisheshika, everything that happens in the universe derives from the will of Ishvara.

The five types of activities are

1. lifting up 
2. putting down 
3. contraction
4. extension 
5. going 

2.1 Categories or Universals

Our conceptual cognitions appearing in the form of an object are called Categories or Universals. They can only be known through cognizing individual particular items and are the same in each particular item. Categories do not exist within particular items; but rather, particular items are the indicators or revealers (vyanjaka) of categories.

Categories are of two types

1. Sarvasarvagata is the all pervading category. This refers to the category objective existence. Out of the seven types of entities, according to Vaisheshika, Sarvasarvagata pertains only to substances, properties, and activities. It does not apply to categories, particularities, inherent invariable relationships, or negation phenomena. This twofold division of the seven types of entities is similar to the Buddhist Sautrantika division of objective entities and metaphysical entities. In both Nyaya-Vaishashika and Sautrantika, both groups of phenomena have truly established existence, though only the first group is objectively “real.”
2. The Vyaktisarvagata (specific categories) apply only to some items for example the category of “table” applying only to all tables. Particularities or individualities are what are apprehended by a conceptual cognition when cognizing two distinct or individual objects that would otherwise be alike, either in terms of the all-pervading category of being objectively existent (such as with a vase and a pillar). 

There are five types of inherent, invariable relationships: the relationships between

1. basic things (other than souls) and properties
2. basic things (other than souls) and activities
3. particular items and categories
4. ultimate substances (referring to partless particles of earth, water, fire, wind, and physical minds) and particular items made of their contingent conglomerations
5. a whole and its parts, such as a body and its limbs, or inherently abiding material causes (samavayikarana) and their products, such as clay and a clay pot made of it.

The four types of nonexistence are:

1. antecedent nonexistence (pragabhava) – for instance the nonexistence of a vase before it is made.
2. perished nonexistence ( pradhvamsabhava) – for instance the nonexistence of a vase after it has perished
3. mutual nonexistence (anyonyabhava) – mutual exclusion, such as the nonexistence of a vase being a pillar and a pillar being a vase.
4. eternal nonexistence (atyantabhava) – the absolute nonexistence of something that never has, never will, and never can presently exist. According to some explanations, this type of nonexistence refers to the total absence of an object in locations other than where it presently is

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