Page 442 of: Glimpses of History of Sanskrit Literature

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of popularity both in the past and the present at the apex.
Rightly has it been said:
tävad garjanti śāstrāṇi jambukā vipine yathā/
na garjati mahāśaktir yāvad vedāntakesarī//
"Śāstras assert themselves as howl jackals in a jungle, till
the mighty lion in the form of Vedānta does not roar."
Vaiśeṣika
As it is with Sāṃkhya and Yoga so it is with Nyāya and
Vaiśeṣika. Both are very similar to each other. The main aim of
Vaiśeṣika is to explain the external world while that of Nyāya
is to do the same in the case of the inner one. Comparatively
Vaiśeṣika is older than Nyāya. The originator of this philosophy
is sage Kanāda. Some people term his system as Aulūkya
because according to them the original name of Kanāda was
Ulūka. He came to be called Kaṇāda because for his food he
subsisted on only a few grains, kana+ada (ad 'to eat'). It is also
possible that Aulūkya formed from Ulūka is a term of derision
used by the Advaitins against Kaṇāda who, according to them,
could not see the unity in diversity like an owl the sun, and who
proceeded from unity to diversity and postulated salvation from
the knowledge of the six categories, Padārthas. Such jibes were
common among opponents in ancient times.
The main theory of this system is that the atoms, Paramāṇus,
are eternal and it is through them that the world comes into
being. The Vaiśeṣika accepts six categories-substance, quality,
action, generality, particularity (viśesa, whence the name of the
system is derived) and inseparable relation; dravya, guna, karma,
sāmānya, viśesa, samavāya. To these six the non-existence/
nullity/negation, abhāva which is defined as bhāvabhinna,
bhāvabhinno 'bhāvaḥ, other than positive, was added later.
Substance in Vaiśeṣika is that category which though
being the base of its qualities and actions is different from them