Satkaryavada And Asatkaryavada

SR No.: 269534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst
Total Pages: 7
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 898 KB

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posed of; together they constitute three entities. The Vai eşikas, moreover, present a list of categories which constitutes, in their opinion, a list of all there is. The question is: how could the Vaisesikas find out what filled their world?
Their answer is directly relevant to the theme of this lecture. It is: the Sanskrit language. The Sanskrit language allowed them to find out what exists. Words are for them the key that gives access to reality. This they explain by pointing out that names were given by seers who could perceive everything. This in its turn
Vaiseșika Sürra (ed. Jambuvijaya) 2.1.18-19: sajnakarma iv asmadvisistānam lingam/ praryakspårvakalvā! salljäkarmanah. See also Wezler, 1985. The theme of seers who have given names to things is already present in the Rgveda and other early texts, as we have seen. Other texts take over the same theme. The yukridipika (ed. Pandeya, p. 5 19 f.) ascribes the original function of naming things to the supreme seer (paramarsi), who is, of course Kapila. The Mahabhārata (12.262.8), probably inspired by the Nirukta passage cited earlier.. states that the seer Kapila had an insight into the nature of things (pruryakyadharma): The Mahabhasya (ed. Kielhorn vol. I p. 111. 11f.) uses the same expression (here pratyaksadharman) in connection with seers known as yurvanas tarvånas (so Cardona 1990: 7 and 16 n. 24). The Nyāya Bhäsyu use the same expression as the Nirukra (sāksäikytadharman) with reference to "reliable persons" (apa); see Franco 1994: 241. See further Rucg8, 1994, 1994a; also Bharthari's yogic perception has played a role in Vaišeşika from an early date onward. The idea that poets have a special insight into the nature of things was to have a long life in India. Rajasekhara, the author of the treatise on poetry called Kavyamimansa (9th or 10th century C.E). observes in chapter 12 (p. 62, 117.p.63,1.1, tr. Granoff, 1995:364): "The true poetic eye, gained from propitiation of the goddess Sarasvati, without need of external aids reveals things that have been directly experienced before, in a process that is beyond the range of human conception and cannot be described in words. For it is said that the goddess Sarasvati reveals even to the sleeping poet both the theme of his poem and the language in which to express it. But others though awake are as if blind. For this reason it is said that really great poets are blind to things that have already been seen by others, but possess a kind of divine sight that enables them to perceive that which no one before them has ever seen. Even the Three-eyed god Siva or Indra with his thousand eyes cannot see that which mortal poets see with their ordinary eyes. In the mirror that is the mind of poets the whole universe is reflected. Words and what they express vie with each other in their rush to be present to great minded poets. Poets explore with their words that which yogins see through the power of their religious accomplishments. And so the
explains why the Vaiseșika texts frequently emphasise that this or that ontological situation justifies this or that current expres. sion. The quality prthaktva (separateness), for example, explains that people speak of distinction. Sometimes the reasoning works in the opposite direction: the fact that the personal pronoun "I" cannot be used in apposition with some such term as "earth", proves that the soul is different from the body. Many further examples could be adduced to illustrate the parallelism between words and things from the Vaiseșika point of view, but they tend to be rather technical; I will not, therefore, harrass you with more of them. But I would like to add one more observation: even though the texts are not explicit about this, the conscious belief in the intimate connection between words and things may explain why the three most important and perhaps oldest) categories of Vaišeşika- substance (dravya), quality (guna) and movement (karman) - correspond to the three main types of words: nouns. adjectives and verbs.
These considerations show that Vaišeşika takes a close connection between words and things for granted. This makes it all the more understandable that the principle of correspondence exerted a strong attraction on them.
We now turn to the other remaining question. Which were the Vaiseșika texts in which the positions outlined above found expression?
The oldest clearly understandable and unitary Vaišeşika text which we possess is the Padārthadharmasangraha of Prasastapāda, which I mentioned earlier. I am tempted to believe that this text belongs to the sixth century of the common era, and I have the impression that most researchers would more or less agree with this date. Besides the Padārthadharmasangraha we have a short text, that has only survived in Chinese translation, and which may have been called Daśapadārthi; it is unfortunately too short to derive much information from it. And then there is, of course, the Vaiseșika Sutra. The Vaiseșika Sūtra is the oldest
words of great poets are potentially infinite".
See Bronkhorst, 1992: 99f., for these and other examples.