Text 14

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of Text 14:

गुणादीनाम् पञ्चानामपि निर्गुणत्वनिष्क्रियत्वे ॥ १४ ॥

guṇādīnām pañcānāmapi nirguṇatvaniṣkriyatve || 14 ||

Text (14): To the five, Quality and the rest, also belong the character of being devoid of qualities, and that of being without action.

Commentary: The Nyāyakandalī of Śrīdhara.

(English rendering of Śrīdhara’s commentary called Nyāyakandalī or Nyāyakaṇḍalī from the 10th century)

The author now points out the points of similarity among Quality, Action, Community, Individuality and Inherence.

“Being devoid of qualities”—i.e. being qualified by an absence of qualities.

“Being without action” i.e. being qualified by an absence of action.

(As to how absence, a negative entity, can be a qualification of a positive entity) a negative entity can serve as the qualification of a positive entity, simply on account of its bringing about a qualified cognition, exactly in the same way as a positive entity can qualify a negative one; e.g. we have such an idea as ‘aghaṭam bhūtalam’ [the ‘jar-less place,’ where ‘jarlessness,’ a negative entity, qualifies the positive entity ‘place’.]

Question: “As there is no relationship between a positive and a negative entity, how could a negative entity serve as the qualification?”

Answer: There is no doubt that we have such a qualified cognition (as ‘aghatam bhūtalam’); and on the strength of this notion we could assume the necessary relationship, if you consider it absolutely necessary for the qualification to be related to the qualified.

Notes.

According to the Vaiśeṣikas, a quality can reside in Substances only. At first sight it appears difficult to see the correctness of this notion; as we often make use of such expressions as ‘bright colours,’ ‘pleasant taste’ &c. where qualifications of brightness and pleasantness are found to bespoken of with reference to Colour and Taste, which are qualities. But what the Vaiśeshika will say is that the lightness or pleasantness has for its substrate, the bright-coloured Substance, and not the colour.

By ‘Action’ here is meant chiefly motion; and there can be no motion apart from a Substance.