Vaisheshika-sutra with Commentary

by Nandalal Sinha | 1923 | 149,770 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165

The Vaisheshika-sutra 8.1.5, English translation, including commentaries such as the Upaskara of Shankara Mishra, the Vivriti of Jayanarayana-Tarkapanchanana and the Bhashya of Chandrakanta. The Vaisheshika Sutras teaches the science freedom (moksha-shastra) and the various aspects of the soul (eg., it's nature, suffering and rebirth under the law of karma). This is sutra 5 (‘substance is the cause of cognition of genus and species also’) contained in Chapter 1—Of Presentative Cognition—of Book VIII (of ordinary cognition by means of conjunction or combination).

Sūtra 8.1.5 (Substance is the cause of cognition of Genus and Species also)

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Vaiśeṣika sūtra 8.1.5:

सामान्यविशेषेषु सामान्यविशेषाभावात् तदेव ज्ञानम् ॥ ८.१.५ ॥

sāmānyaviśeṣeṣu sāmānyaviśeṣābhāvāt tadeva jñānam || 8.1.5 ||

sāmānya-viśeṣesu—in genera and species; sāmānya-viśeṣa-abhāvāt—in consequence of the non-existence of genus and species; tataḥ—thence, from substrata; eva—alone; jñānam—cognition.

5. In consequence of the non-existence of Genus and Species in genera and species, cognition (of them) is due to that alone.

Commentary: The Upaskāra of Śaṅkara Miśra:

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

He describes another mode of the production of knowledge:

[Read sūtra 8.1.5 above]

Existence is the (summum) genus, its species are substanceness, attribute-ness and action-ness. These again are genera, and their species are earth-ness, etc., colour-ness, etc., throwing-upward-ness, etc. Among these, omnisensuous cognition of the genera inhering in substance is due to that only, that is, due only to appropriate or perceptible, particular substratum, and also to combination with the conjunct, combination with the combined with the conjunct, and combination with the combined, all these combinations being related to that substratum. Omnisensuous cognition, again, is produced, in the case of attribute, from combination with the combined with the Conjunct; in the case of sound-ness, ka-noss, etc., from combination with the combined in the case of existence, from combination with the conjunct, from combination with the combined with the conjunct, and from combination with the combined. In the case of attribute, the proximity or contiguity which is the condition of perceptibility, is not Constituted by combination with the conjunct, or combination.

It may be objected: ‘Tataḥ, eva,’ i.e., from contact with or contiguity to their substrata alone—such delimitation or exclusion is not valid. Because in genus and in species also there do exist other genus and species. Contact with, or contiguity to, them also is a cause of cognition. In anticipation of this objection, he says, ‘In consequence of the non-existence of genus and species.’ For genus and species do not exist in genus and species, since that would entail infinite regression. The intuition of their mutual distinctions arises from their own forms or natures alone, or in this way, for instance, that the genus, bovine-ness, is cognised from the distinctness of the upādhi, adjunct or external condition, characterised by being present-in-all-bovine animals; while being absent from other than bovine animals. Similarly with regard to pot-ness, etc., also.—5.

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