Sūtra 5.2.24 (Attributes are non-combinative causes)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 5.2.24:

कारणं त्वसमवायिनो गुणाः ॥ ५.२.२४ ॥

kāraṇaṃ tvasamavāyino guṇāḥ || 5.2.24 ||

kāraṇaṃ—cause; tu—however; a-samavāyinaḥ—non-combinative; guṇāḥ—attributes.

24. Attributes are, however, non-combinative causes.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

(English rendering of Śaṅkara Miśra’s commentary called Upaskāra from the 15th century)

It may be objected: If attributes, being imponderable, are not the combinative causes of action, then how are attributes and actions produced by attributes? For causality, save and except in the form of combinative causality, is not possible. To meet this objection, he says:

[Read sūtra 5.2.24 above]

Attributes are non-combinative causes but not combinative causes also, whereby they might be receptacles or fields of action. And that non-combinative causality arises, in some cases, from combination in the same object with the effect, as that of the conjunction of soul and mind in the particular attributes of the soul, and of conjunction, disjunction, and sound in sound, and, in other cases, from combination in the same object with the cause, as that of the colour, etc., of potsherds, etc., in the colour, etc., of the water-pot, etc.—24.

Commentary: The Vivṛti of Jayanārāyaṇa:

(English extracts of Jayanārāyaṇa Tarkapañcānana’s Vivṛti or ‘gloss’ called the Kaṇādasūtravivṛti from the 17th century)

The use of ‘cause’ instead of causes, is aphoristic.