Vaiśeṣika Sūtra
Foundational text of the Vaisheshika school of Hindu philosophy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Vaiśeṣika Sūtra (Sanskrit: वैशेषिक सूत्र), also called Kanada sutra, is an ancient Sanskrit text at the foundation of the Vaisheshika school of Hindu philosophy.[1][2][3] The sutra was authored by the Hindu sage Kanada, also known as Kashyapa.[4][5] According to some scholars, he flourished before the advent of Buddhism because the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra makes no mention of Buddhism or Buddhist doctrines;[6] however, the details of Kanada's life are uncertain,[7] and the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra was likely compiled sometime between 6th and 2nd century BCE,[5][8] and finalized in the currently existing version before the start of the common era.[9]
A number of scholars have commented on it since the beginning of common era; the earliest commentary known is the Padartha Dharma Sangraha of Prashastapada.[10][11] Another important secondary work on Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is Maticandra's Dasha padartha sastra which exists both in Sanskrit and its Chinese translation in 648 CE by Yuanzhuang.[12]
The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra is written in aphoristic sutras style,[13] and presents its theories on the creation and existence of the universe using naturalistic atomism,[14] applying logic and realism, and is one of the earliest known systematic realist ontology in human history.[15] The text discusses motions of different kind and laws that govern it, the meaning of dharma, a theory of epistemology, the basis of Atman (self, soul), and the nature of yoga and moksha.[16][17][18] The explicit mention of motion as the cause of all phenomena in the world and several propositions about it make it one of the earliest texts on physics.