Tharkasastra 3

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The whole universe is classified in seven categories, padhaartha. The

word means an entity with name, padha and its denotation, artha.

 

 

The seven categories are :

 

dhravya, substance,

guna- attribute

karma- action,

saamaanya- generality ( the class to which it belongs to)

visesha- particularity or speciality, which differentiates it from

others.

 

samavaaya- inherence, the inseparable relation

 

abhaava- non-existence

 

 

1. dhravya – substance. This includes everything that possesses a quality, guNa

and the substances are of nine kinds, namely, the five elements, mind, time,

space and soul. All these have qualities that will be explained later.

 

2. guna - attributes like colour, number etc and they are 24 which we shall see

in detail later.

 

3. karma- action

 

4. saamaanya- general characteristics of a particular class of objects

 

5.visesha- also called bhedha , the difference of one entity from

another.

 

6.samvaaya- Inherence or eternal relationship

 

7.abhaava – non-existence , which is also a category as it is as

real as the existence of an object.

 

 

To illustrate this, let us take a pot. It is a dhravya as it possesses many

qualities like name and form, which are the gunas. When it is used in action

like its creation or destruction or carrying water etc. it is the karma. It

belongs to the species of articles made of mud and it is the generality,

saamaanya. The pot is different from a cloth. It is the visesha or the

special feature of the pot. The pot and the shape of it is inseparable. That is

if the shape is not there we don't call it a pot. This is the samavaaya. When

the pot is destroyed it becomes nonexistent or it could also be said that where

there is no pot we see the nonexistence of it. This is abhaava. So a thing can

be classified into all these seven categories. In the next lesson we will take

the dhravyas and see how each one of the nine dhravyas deserve its name.

 

Now we shall see how tharka , reasoning comes into play in this categorization.

 

It is usually given in the form of objection and reply.

 

Objection 1. When the categories are given as seven why should the word saptha,

seven be used as it is evident that they are only seven by the very

enumeration.

 

Reply- The word seven is used to denote that they are only seven and not more

and also to denote that the word category, padhaarTha covers all the seven.

 

In tharka sasthra not a single word is used without implication or

unnecessarily. It is proved everywhere by means of reasoning like this.

 

Doubt.1

why is guna and karma classified as two categories?

If one is a sarvagn~yan it is a guna but knowing something is also an

action and so it is a karma?

 

 

answer

The categories mean the classifications under which all things on earth will

fall. That is, you take anything on earth and it can be classified as one of the

seven categories. Jnanam or knowledge is a guna while knowing is a karma. When

you talk about the jnana it is a guna and when you mention knowing it is a

karma. So in what ever manner you refer to something it falls under one or other

of the categories. In other words, nothing on earth can be outside these seven

categories. When you say the pot is blue it falls under the catogory of a guna

and when we say the pot is used in carrying water it is karma.

 

 

 

Doubt2

Vise:sham is a quality that is the identity of the object. If so why do they

need a samavAyam. For eg. pot-ness makes an object pot. why a separate

category as samavAyam and continuing the same thought why is there abha:vam?

 

 

 

Answer

samavaya on the other hand is the inherent property of a thing. The pot and the

potness ghatathva as you mentioned are in samavaya sambandha. So are the clay

and the pot as one cannot exist without the other. We will deal with this when

we study samavaya. visesha is the particularity of the entity which

differentiates it from the others. It is different from samavaya. Abhaava

similarly is different from samvaya and visesha as it refers to the non

existence. There are four kinds of abhava and you will understand when we come

to it.

 

When we say something is nonexisting, like the pot is not there we

refer to its nonexistence and hence it is a separate category altogether.