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FOREWORD
This edition of the Vaisesika Sūtra with the hitherto unpublished commentary of Candrānanda will, I am confident, be welcomed by all students of Indian Philosophy. The first edition of Vaiseșika Sútra with the commentary Upaskāra of Sankara Miśra was published for the first time in 1860-61 in the Bibliotheca Indica, No. 34, at Calcutta and was edited by Shri Jayanārāyana Tarkapañcānana. From that time onwards it is the Upaskāra commentary which has been generally in use. A Second Edition of it was published in 1923 from Banaras as Kashi Sanskrit Series, number 3. Now, after a lapse of a century since its first publication a new edition of the Vaiseșika Sūtra with the commentary of Candrānanda is being placed in the hands of scholars. Vaiseşika Darśana is one of the principal Darśanas of Indian Philosophy. Kaņāda is regarded as its founder; he is said to be the author of the Vaiseșika Sūtras. But the treatment of different subjects in the Sütras not being in good order, Prasastapāda composed his Padārthadharmasangraha which is referred to as Padārthapraveśaka in the Tattvasangraha Pañjikā etc., and which came to be known as Prasastapāda Bhāşya. This Bhāşya became very popular because of its systematic treatment and methodical exposition of the subject and various commentaries like the Vyomavati, Kandalī, Kiraṇāvali etc. were written on it. Due to wide prevalence of this Bhāşya and its commentaries, the study of the original Vaiseșika Sūtras became less and less popular. However, though the work is called Prasastapāda Bhāşya it is not really a regular commentary on the Vaiseșika Sūtras; gradually all the old commentaries on the Vaišeșika Sūtras were lost, and it was possibly because of this that the order of the Sūtras became confused and there were interpolations and omissions in certain cases. The original text of certain Sūtras was largely changed and hence it became difficult to obtain a correct interpretation of several of them.
In the 15th century, Sankara Miśra obtained one of these confused texts of the Sūtras on which he wrote his commentary Upaskāra* in the style of the Navya Nyāya. It is the Sūtrapātha given by Sankara Misra that has been current in our days, but the Sūtrapāțha obtained in references and also found in old texts often does not agree with the text of Sankara Miśra. Hence Prof. Arantlal Thakur in his Introduction to his edition of Vaiseșika Darsana, published by the Mithila Research Institute, Darabhanga, in 1957, observes :“As a result, the Sūtrapātha must have been vitiated in course of time.
*सूत्रमात्रावलम्बन निरालम्बेऽपि गच्छतः । खे खेलवद् ममाप्यत्र साहसं सिद्धिमेष्यति ।।
- Upaskāra of Sankara Misra, p. I.
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