Substance (6): Kāla (Time)

In the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika philosophy, kāla is admitted as sixth dravya. The reality of kāla as an entity is accepted by this philosophy. It is not perceptible. But it is real and objective. It is known as only one, omnipresent, eternal and the foundation of all events.^[1]

Annaṃbhaṭṭa defines kāla as the special cause of the employment of words such as past, present etc.^[2] It is a very simple definition and best appropriate for all practical purposes. That action which is already completed, is known as past, which action is going on, that is present and action which has not started yet that is future.^[3]

Viśvanātha mentions in his work the definition of kāla as:

janyānāṃ janakaḥ kālo jagatāmāśrayo mataḥ/
parāparatvadhihetuḥ kṣaṇādiḥ syādupādhitaḥ/^[4]

That means: time is the cause of things that are produced and is considered to be the substratum of the universe. It is the cause of the notion of priority and posteriority. It is converted into a moment etc. owing to its limiting adjuncts. Kāla is the cause of all produced things and it is the foundation of the universe. It is the cause of all effects. Moreover, kāla is the cause of the knowledge of priority and posteriority.

Another similar definition is found in the Upaskāra thus:

parāparavyatikarayaugapadyāyaugapadyacirakṣiprapratyayakāraṇaṃ dravaṃ kāla.^[5]

Śivāditya discusses kāla in his Saptapadārthī as follows: time is implied from oldness and newness of substances. Oldness or newness is depended upon the motions of the sun. Oldness is found in an old substance after some movements of the Sun from its production. Conjunction of a substance with time is known as noninherent cause of its oldness or newness. The locus of this conjunction is time.^[6] Viśvanātha also says that the perception as ‘Now there is the jar’, takes into consideration the motion of the sun and so on. When this happens, one has to admit that there is some relation between the jar etc. and the motion of the sun and so forth. Now that relation cannot be conjunction etc. So time alone is assumed to be what brings about the relation. Thus also is it rightly considered to be the substratum of the universe.^[7]

Slowness means a long period of time, quickness means a short period of tie. Simultaneity indicates the same time and succession, different times. Thus, time is implied through the cognitions of slowness, quickness, simultaneity, succession, oldness and youth.^[8] Jayanta Bhaṭṭa mentions in his work that time is not perceptible like ghaṭa, paṭa etc. but it is inferred from actions like slowness, quickness and the like.^[9] Time is known as the cause of production, existence and destruction of all effects. There is a particular moment of production of all effects. The effects exist for a certain period and they are destroyed at a particular moment. So, time is the efficient cause of production, existence and destruction of all effects. Without the instrumentality of time, the effects would not be possible.^[10]

There is three types of kāla: past, present and future. The future means the production of an effect, the present means its existence and the past means its destruction. If an effect is not yet produced, then it may be called future, its existence is called past.^[11] According to Praśastapāda, time is the cause of all effects, production, existence and destruction.^[12] The time of the wink of an eye is known as nimeṣa. The fourth part of it is known as kṣana, a lava is two moments other kāṣṭhā, kalā, mūhurta, yāma, day, night, fortnight, month, season, year etc. The cause of these is the time.^[13] However, these divisions of time are because of its limiting adjuncts (upādhis).^[14] According to the Vaiśeṣikas actually time is one as its marks of slowness, quickness, succession etc. are similar in everywhere.^[15] It has five qualities–number, magnitude, distinctness, conjunction and disjunction.^[16] Kāla does not exist in any substance, it itself is a substance.^[17] It is also partless because we do not find its parts in which it may exist. It is the largest magnitude.^[18] Jadunath Sinha remarks that “It (time) is the efficient cause of all effects, their production, persistence and destruction, which are real. They would not be real, if time were not real. The reality of time is the foundation of the realistic pluralism of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika.”^[19]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

sa caiko vibhurnityaśca. Tarkasaṃgraha., p.11

[2]:

atītādivyavahārahetuḥ kālaḥ. Ibid

[3]:

cf. yadā patanakriyā vyuparatā bhavati, sa kālaḥ patitakalāḥ. yadotputsyate sa patitavyakālaḥ. Yadā dravya vartamāne kriyā gṛhyate sa vartamānaḥ kālaḥ. Nyāyabhāṣya, 2.1.38

[4]:

Bhāṣāpariccheda, pp. 61-62

[5]:

Vaiśeṣikasūtropaskāra, 7.1.25

[6]:

ādityaparivartanotpadyaparatvāparatvāsamavāyikāraṇādhāraḥ paratvāparatvānadhikaraṇam kālaḥ. Saptapadārthī.,p. 53

[7]:

cf. Nyāyasiddhāntamuktāvalī, p. 117

[8]:

cf. yaugapadyam ekakālatā ayaugapadyam anekakālatā ciratvaṃ dirghakālatā kṣipratvam alpakālatā. Kiraṇāvalī, p.116

[9]:

na tāvad gṛhyate kālaḥ pratyakṣena ghatādivat ciraḳkṣiprādibodho’pi kāryamātrāvalambanaḥ. Nyāyamañjarī, p.136

[10]:

Nyāyakaṇḍalī, p. 66

[11]:

kālastu utpattisthitivināśalakṣaṇas… trividhaḥ. Saptapadārthī.,p. 21

[12]:

sarvakāryāṇām cotpattisthitvināśahetu … Vaiśeṣikadarśanam with Praśastapādabhāṣya,, p. 43

[13]:

kṣaṇalavanimeṣakāṣṭhākalāmuhūrtayāmāhorātrārdhamā-samāsartvayanasaṃvatsarayugakalpa … hetuḥ. Ibid

[14]:

tannānātvaṃsiddhamaupādhikaṃ ca. Nyāyamañjarī, p.141

[15]:

cf. kālaliṅgāviśeṣādekatvaṃ siddham. Vaiśeṣikadarśanam with Praśastapādabhāṣya,, p. 43

[16]:

tasya guṇaḥ saṃkhyāparimāṇapṛthaktvasaṃyogavibhāgaḥ. Ibid

[17]:

Ibid.

[18]:

cf. avayavāśrayānupalambhād niravayavaḥ. Nyāyamañjarī, p.139

[19]:

Sinha, Jadunath, Indian Philosophy, Vol. I., p.411