---
type: Reference
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: padarthadharmasamgraha
title: Padārthadharmasaṃgraha (Praśastapāda)
description: Praśastapāda's systematic exposition of the Vaiśeṣika categories, so authoritative that its author is called the 'second founder'; the classic source for the twenty-four qualities and the dyad-triad composition.
tags:
- reference
- prashastapada
- padarthadharmasamgraha
- commentary
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Padārthadharmasaṃgraha (Praśastapāda)

The Padārthadharmasaṃgraha of Praśastapāda (c. 6th century CE), though nominally a commentary on the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra, is really an independent systematic treatise, and its ordering of the doctrine became standard. Praśastapāda fixed the count of qualities at twenty-four, gave the classic account of atomic composition through dyads (dvyaṇuka) and triads (tryaṇuka), articulated the role of unseen moral desert (adṛṣṭa) and divine will in initiating world-formation, and clarified inherence (samavāya) as one eternal relation distinct from conjunction. His authority is such that he is often called the second founder of Vaiśeṣika. This bundle cites him throughout the ontology and atomism tiers.
