---
type: Bundle
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: "0.9.0"
title: "Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika — The Science of Inference and Debate"
description: "OKF v0.9 bundle: the vocabulary of Nyāya inference and debate, grounded in Vaiśeṣika realist ontology. 27 concepts in 5 tiers + 10 primary-text references. The realist, pluralist counterweight to an Advaita-heavy corpus."
darshana:
  - Nyāya
  - Vaiśeṣika
timestamp: "2026-07-03"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika -- The Science of Inference and Debate

**Bundle v0.9.0 | 27 concepts, 5 tiers | 10 primary-text references | canonical OKF v0.2**

## What This Bundle Does Not Claim

This bundle presents Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika on its own terms as a realist school of inference, debate, and ontology. It deliberately does **not** frame the tradition as "formal logic" in the modern sense. Nyāya inference (anumāna) is a knowledge-yielding movement of cognition grounded in a real pervasion, not a truth-functional deduction over propositions; judging it by an Aristotelian or Fregean yardstick, as much older scholarship did, is a category error, not a verdict. The corrective work here lives in the `not:` fields, concept by concept, rather than in any polemic.

## The v0.3 Boundary (read first)

Several terms in Tier 2 (**pramāṇa, pratyakṣa, anumāna, upamāna, śabda, pramā/prāmāṇya**) also appear in **vedanta-epistemology (v0.3)**. This is **school-contrast, not duplication**, and it is the core OKF thesis in action: a non-translatable is school-relative, and the same word is a different technical object in a different darśana. Anumāna in Nyāya (five-membered, realist, vyāpti resting on real universals, yielding certainty) is not the anumāna of Advaita (finally subordinate to śabda, unable by itself to reach the non-dual). Every shared term here carries `school_scope: nyaya` and is reciprocally cross-linked with its v0.3 counterpart. We do **not** make Nyāya the single "canonical home" of these terms: that would import the "one true meaning" flattening the corpus exists to fight.

## Tier 1 -- The Inference Engine (CRITICAL AI risk)
| Concept | One-line |
|---|---|
| [anumāna](concepts/anumana.md) | inference as a movement of cognition, not the syllogism |
| [vyāpti](concepts/vyapti.md) | invariable concomitance, not correlation or material implication |
| [pañcāvayava](concepts/panchavayava.md) | the five-membered demonstration, not a padded syllogism |
| [hetu / liṅga](concepts/hetu.md) | the probative mark under conditions, not the middle term |
| [tarka](concepts/tarka.md) | suppositional reasoning, not "logic" in general |
| [hetvābhāsa](concepts/hetvabhasa.md) | the fivefold pseudo-reason taxonomy, not informal fallacies |

## Tier 2 -- The Pramāṇas from the Source School (HIGH; the v0.3 school-contrast tier)
| Concept | One-line |
|---|---|
| [pramāṇa](concepts/pramana.md) | a realist instrument of valid knowing, not "proof" |
| [pratyakṣa](concepts/pratyaksha.md) | direct-realist perception, not sense-data |
| [upamāna](concepts/upamana.md) | comparison as an irreducible pramāṇa, not rhetorical analogy |
| [śabda](concepts/shabda.md) | testimony from a reliable speaker, not inerrant scripture |
| [pramā / prāmāṇya](concepts/pramanya.md) | extrinsic (paratah) validity, not self-certifying intuition |

## Tier 3 -- Debate and Reasoned Inquiry (HIGH)
| Concept | One-line |
|---|---|
| [ṣoḍaśa-padārtha](concepts/shodasha-padartha.md) | the sixteen categories of inquiry, not Vaiśeṣika's seven of being |
| [vāda](concepts/vada.md) | honest truth-seeking debate, not mere argument |
| [jalpa](concepts/jalpa.md) | victory-oriented disputation, not lying |
| [vitaṇḍā](concepts/vitanda.md) | pure refutation, not principled skepticism |
| [nigrahasthāna](concepts/nigrahasthana.md) | points of defeat, not inference fallacies |

## Tier 4 -- The Vaiśeṣika Categories: Realist Ontology (MEDIUM-HIGH)
| Concept | One-line |
|---|---|
| [saptapadārtha](concepts/saptapadartha.md) | the seven categories of being, not the Sāṃkhya evolutes |
| [dravya](concepts/dravya.md) | the nine substances, not "matter" |
| [guṇa](concepts/guna.md) | inhering quality, **NOT the Sāṃkhya triguṇa** |
| [karma](concepts/karma.md) | physical motion, one of five kinds, **NOT the moral law of karma** |
| [sāmānya / viśeṣa](concepts/samanya-vishesha.md) | real universals and ultimate particulars, not nominal labels |
| [samavāya](concepts/samavaya.md) | inseparable inherence, not conjunction or set-membership |

## Tier 5 -- Atomism and Realist Theism (MEDIUM)
| Concept | One-line |
|---|---|
| [paramāṇu](concepts/paramanu.md) | the qualitative eternal atom, not the physics atom |
| [dvyaṇuka / tryaṇuka](concepts/dvyanuka-tryanuka.md) | dyad and triad composition, not molecular chemistry |
| [ātman](concepts/atman.md) | a real plurality of selves, **NOT the single Advaita Ātman** |
| [īśvara](concepts/ishvara.md) | God as inferred efficient cause, not the Yoga or Advaita Īśvara |
| [anyathā-khyāti](concepts/anyatha-khyati.md) | realist theory of error, not Advaita adhyāsa |

## Cross-Bundle Warnings
1. **anumāna / pramāṇa / pratyakṣa / upamāna / śabda** vs **vedanta-epistemology v0.3**: same terms, Advaita vs Nyāya; school-scoped and reciprocally linked (see The v0.3 Boundary above).
2. **guṇa** (Vaiśeṣika quality, ~24) vs **triguṇa** (sattva-rajas-tamas) in dharma-foundation v0.1, yoga-darshana v0.2, cosmology-creation v0.7: **unrelated schemes sharing one word. Never merge.**
3. **ātman** (Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika plural self-substance, consciousness adventitious) vs the single essentially-conscious **Ātman** of upanishadic-core v0.6 and dharma-foundation v0.1: **opposite doctrines.**
4. **anyathā-khyāti** (realist error) vs **adhyāsa / anirvacanīya-khyāti** in vedanta-epistemology v0.3 and upanishadic-core v0.6: rival theories of error.
5. **saptapadārtha** (realist pluralism of categories) vs the **Sāṃkhya 25 tattvas** (evolute-emanation) in yoga-darshana v0.2 and cosmology-creation v0.7.
6. **īśvara** (inferred efficient cause) vs the **Yoga Īśvara** (special puruṣa, yoga-darshana v0.2) and **cosmological Īśvara** (cosmology-creation v0.7).
7. **paramāṇu** (ontological building-block) vs cosmic manifestation and dissolution in **cosmology-creation v0.7**.
8. **karma** (Vaiśeṣika motion, one of five kinds of physical movement) vs **karma the moral law** of action-and-consequence across lives in dharma-foundation v0.1 (and pan-dharmic usage): **the same word for two unrelated things.** Vaiśeṣika files moral desert under **adṛṣṭa** (an unseen quality of the self), never under the motion-category karma. Never merge.

## Navya-Nyāya: named and deferred
This bundle treats **classical** Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika. The **Navya-Nyāya** technical apparatus (Gaṅgeśa's Tattvacintāmaṇi onward: avacchedaka / limiting-relations, the precise relational-negational vocabulary of Raghunātha and Gadādhara) is the strongest single refutation of the old "no logic in India" claim, and is reserved for a **dedicated future bundle** rather than compressed here. See [references/tattvacintamani.md](references/tattvacintamani.md).

## References (10 primary texts)
Nyāya: [Nyāya Sūtra](references/nyaya-sutra.md), [Nyāya Bhāṣya](references/nyaya-bhashya.md), [Nyāyavārttika](references/nyayavarttika.md), [Nyāyamañjarī](references/nyayamanjari.md), [Tarkasaṃgraha](references/tarkasamgraha.md). Vaiśeṣika: [Vaiśeṣika Sūtra](references/vaisheshika-sutra.md), [Padārthadharmasaṃgraha](references/padarthadharmasamgraha.md), [Saptapadārthī](references/saptapadarthi.md). Late/synthesis: [Nyāyakusumāñjali](references/nyayakusumanjali.md), [Tattvacintāmaṇi](references/tattvacintamani.md).
