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CONCEPTION OF IŚVARA IN THE EARLY NYAYA-VAIŠEŞIKA SCHOOL
Does Kanāda believe in the existence of Isvara (God) ?'
There is no clear mention of Isvara in the Vaisesikasūtras of Kanāda?. Hence the author of Yuktidipikā, a commentary on the Sānkhyakārikā, explicitly states that according to Kanāda there is no Isvara (God). And Garbe, a well known modern scholar of Indian philosophy, maintains that the Vaišeşikasūtra originally did not accept the existence of God'. But keeping in view the important place accorded to God in the later Nyāya-Vaiseșika school, the commentators wrongly try to find out in the Vaišeşkasūtra some implied acceptance of the existence of God. Take the following two sūtras : yato'bhyudayaniḥśreyasasiddhiḥ sa dharmaḥ /• tadvacanād āmnāyasya prāmāṇyam / V.S. 1.1.2-3. The straight and clear meaning.of these two sūtras is : “That by which one attains prosperity and beatitude is Dharma. Because the Vedas deal with it (=Dharma), they are to be regarded as pramāņa (authority or valid)'. But the commentators explain the word 'tadvacanāt as meaning because the Vedas are the Word of Maheśvara's. But this. interpretation seems unwarranted and farfetched. In this connection Prof. S. N. Dasgupta observes: : “The sūtra 'tadvacanād āmnāyasya prāmānyam (1.1.3.) has been explained by Upaskāra as meaning 'The Veda being the Word of Isvara (= God) must be regarded as vilid,' but since there is no mention of 'Isvara' anywhere in the text this is simply reading the later Nyāya ideas into the Vaiseșika”.6 Prof, Erich Frauwallner is of the view that the first four extant aphorisms of the Vaiseşikasūtras are not original. Someone has composed them keeping in view the beginning of Prasastapāda's Padārthadharmasangraha, and having removed the original ones placed them in their place. Prof. E. Frauwallner has restored the original aphorisms on the basis of Udayana's Kiraņāvali and Jaina Haribhadra's Nyāya-praveśakavrtti. In these restored original aphorisms there is nothing that can be interpreted in favour of the view that Kanāda
