Text 5

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Text 5:

गुणाश्च रूपरसगन्धस्पर्शसंख्यापरिमाणपृथक्त्वसम्योगविभागपरत्वापरत्वबुद्धिसुखदुःखेच्छाद्वेषप्रयत्नाश्चेति कण्ठोक्ताः सप्तदश । चशब्दसमुच्चिताश्च गुरुत्वद्रवत्वस्नेहसंस्कारादूष्टशब्दाः सप्तैवेत्येवम् चतुर्विंशतिर्गुणाः ॥ ५ ॥

guṇāśca rūparasagandhasparśasaṃkhyāparimāṇapṛthaktvasamyogavibhāgaparatvāparatvabuddhisukhaduḥkhecchādveṣaprayatnāśceti kaṇṭhoktāḥ saptadaśa | caśabdasamuccitāśca gurutvadravatvasnehasaṃskārādṛṣṭaśabdāḥ saptaivetyevam caturviṃśatirguṇāḥ || 5 ||

Text (5):—The qualities are:—Colour, Taste, Odour, Touch, Number, Dimension, Separateness, Conjunction, Disjunction, Distance, Proximity, Intellect, Pleasure, Pain, Desire, Aversion and Effort; these are the seventeen that are directly mentioned in the Sūtra. The word ‘ca’ (in the Sūtra) however indicates the. other seven: viz: Gravity, Fluidity, Viscidity, Faculty, the two-fold invisible Force and Sound. These make up the twenty-four qualities.—(I-i-6).

Commentary: The Nyāyakandalī of Śrīdhara.

(English rendering of Śrīdhara’s commentary called Nyāyakandalī or Nyāyakaṇḍalī from the 10th century)

The seventeen qualities, Colour and the rest, have been distinctly named in the Sūtra, and the word ‘ca’ indicates the others, Gravity &c., which are ordinarily recognised as ‘qualities.’ Thus the number of Qualities is twenty-four only. As for the qualities of Bravery, Magnanimity, Compassion, Cleverness, Vanity and the like, all these are included in the aforesaid twenty-four. For instance, Bravery is nothing more than an inclination towards the subjugation of an enemy, even if he be stronger than oneself; Magnanimity consists of the Intellect as always tending towards the right path; Compassion is the desire to alleviate the sufferings of others; Cleverness lies in the Intellect directed towards the real state of things; Vanity consists in an exaggerated idea of one’s own greatness; and so forth. The word ‘adṛṣṭa’ (Invisible Force) includes virtue and vice (dharma and adharma). The word ‘Saṃskāra’ (Faculty) includes speed, memory and elasticity.

Objection: “If these words were to include all these qualities, then the number of Qualities would exceed twenty-four.”

Reply: Not so; because all these three—viz. speed memory and elasticity—belong to the same class of ‘Faculty,’ and are regarded as oue only.

Objection: “In that case, the number of qualities would not be twenty-four; as both Virtue and Vice belonging to the same class of ‘Adṛṣṭa’ would also be regarded as one only.”

Reply. Not so; as there is no such class as ‘adṛṣṭa’.

Though the Qualities themselves are devoid of qualities (and as such they could not be qualified by the number ‘twenty-four’, yet they are spoken of as ‘twenty-four,’—the number being applied to them indirectly, by reason of their being capable of having distinctive features of their own (the number ready belonging to these features, and through them transferred to the Qualities themselves).

Notes.

(1) Quality is defined as that which, being neither substance nor action, is capable of generalities; or, that which, while inhering in substances, is devoid of quality and action. Kaṇāda (Vaiśesikasūtra, I-i-16) has defined it as that which inhering in substances, is devoid of qualities, and is an independent cause of conjunctions and disjunctions. It differs from Substance in that, while the latter is capable of existing independently by itself, Quality can never exist apart from Substance. And though Quality and Action both inhere in Substance, the former is a permanent factor in substances while the latter is evanescent. “We understand by Quality that which truly constitutes the nature of a thing—what it is,—what belongs to it permanently as an individual or in common with others like it,—not that which passes, which vanishes and answers [uo][?] lasting judgment. A body falls: it is a fact, an accident; it is heavy, that is quality”

(2) We meet with extensive discussions in various works as to the propriety of the twenty-four—fold classification of qualities. But there is a general agreement on the point that all qualities are included, in one way or the other, in those enumerated among the twenty-four.

(3) Qualities are divided—(a) into Eternal and Evanescent. (6) into General and Specific, and (c) cognisable by one sense, by two senses, or not cognisable by sense organs.

(a) Those belonging to eternal substances are eternal, and those in transient substance, evanescent.

(b) The General qualities are those that subsist conjointly in two or more substances while the specie quality is that residing in only one substance.

(c) The qualities apprehended by single sense-organs are colour, taste, odour and touch; those cognisable by two sense organs are dimension, separateness, conjunction, disjunction, distance, proximity, fluidity and viscidity; the super-sensuous are gravity, adharma, dharma and faculty.