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INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Later Nyāya-Vaiseșika thinkers having removed Brahmă, allot Brahmă's task also to Isvara (God). Again, they maintain that it is īśvara (God) only who gives fruits to living beings in accordance with their past karmas. Moreover, in later Nyāya Vaiseșika works it is established that Isvara (God) possesses will and knowledge both.
From the above discussion we conclude that upto. Prasastapāda, Nyāya-Vaisesika school was atheist and the term "Isvara was used in the sense of jīvanmukta only and not in the sense of God. It is Prasastapāda who for the first time introduced the concept of God into the Nyāya-Vaiseșika school. There are scholars who agree with us on this point."? Perhaps to distinguish God from iśvara (=jivanmukta) of the early Nyāya-Vaišeșika school, Prasastapāda employed the term 'maheśvara' for God, that is, for him jīvanmuktas are iśvaras while God is Mahesvara.
. Notes
1. We possess the old aphorisms of the school : The Vaišeşikasūtras
of Kanāda. Their text or wording is not testified by any old commentary. Numerous quotations in the older philosophical literature testify to a good old kernel. But much old is lost and is also variously changed, new things have also been interpolated.' History of Indian Philosophy, Erich Frauwallner. Delhi, 1984; Part II, p. 4. The kernel seems to belong to c. 300 B.C., while much of the Vaišeşikasūtras as we have them seems to belong to c. 300 A.D. Generally scholars agree that the Vaišesikasütras are older than the
Nyāyasūtras. 2. “There are no references to it (=idea of God) in the Sūtra of Kaņāda,
though commentators profess to find them there.' Outlines of Indian Philosophy, M. Hiriyanna, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.,
1951, p. 242. 3. 3 RJT HT ERRi alfa $27: | Yuktidipikā, kā. 5 4. Philosophy of Ancient India, p.23. 5. Upaskāra, 1.1.3. Upaskāra is a commentary on t e Vaiseşikasūtras,
written by Sankara Misra (1425 A.D.) तदिति हिरण्यगर्भपरामर्शः । हिरण्यं रेतोऽस्येति कृत्वा भगवान् महेश्वर एवोच्यते । Candrānandavrtti, 1.1.3.
