---
type: Concept
bundle: nyaya-vaisheshika
bundle_version: 0.9.0
id: dravya
title: Dravya
iast: Dravya
devanagari: द्रव्य
description: 'Substance, the first Vaiśeṣika category: the nine substrata (earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, self, mind) in which qualities and motions inhere; NOT Aristotelian primary substance, NOT matter or physical stuff, NOT a bare particular stripped of properties.'
darshana:
- Vaiśeṣika
text_source: Vaiśeṣika Sūtra 1.1.5
tags:
- dravya
- substance
- vaisheshika
- nine-substances
- ontology
not:
- term: Aristotelian primary substance
  why: Aristotle's substance is the individual (this man, this horse) as the bearer of a form. Vaiśeṣika dravya is one of nine specified kinds of substratum, several of them (time, space, ether, self) non-material, and it is defined by its role as the locus in which qualities and motions inhere via samavāya. The overlap is partial and the enumerations differ; do not equate the two.
  instead: 'Define dravya as the substrate-category: the nine ultimate substances (earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, self, mind) that bear qualities (guṇa) and motions (karma) through inherence; four of them atomic, several non-physical.'
- term: matter or physical stuff
  why: Only some dravyas are material. Ether (ākāśa), time (kāla), space (dik), self (ātman), and mind (manas) are substances too, and are not matter. Rendering dravya as 'matter' silently drops five of the nine and misclassifies the self as physical.
- term: a bare particular with no properties of its own
  why: A dravya is not a propertyless peg. It is the real locus that qualities and motions inhere in, and the atomic dravyas carry their own eternal ultimate particularity (viśeṣa). Substance and its inhering qualities are distinct categories bound by inherence, not a naked substratum plus a bundle.
related:
- /concepts/saptapadartha.md
- /concepts/guna.md
- /concepts/samavaya.md
- /concepts/paramanu.md
- /concepts/atman.md
timestamp: '2026-07-02'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Dravya -- द्रव्य

**Not:** Aristotelian substance, matter, a bare particular

## What It Actually Means

Dravya, substance, is the first and most basic Vaiśeṣika category: that in which qualities and motions inhere and which serves as the material cause of composite things. Vaiśeṣika fixes exactly nine substances: the four elemental substances earth, water, fire, and air (each ultimately atomic); ether (ākāśa), the substrate of sound; time (kāla) and space or direction (dik), both eternal and all-pervading; the self (ātman); and the mind (manas), the atomic inner instrument. This list quietly encodes the school's whole realism and pluralism: the physical and the non-physical, the atomic and the pervasive, the conscious self and its instrument, all sit as distinct real substances. A dravya is never a bare particular; it is a genuine locus that bears its qualities and motions through the relation of inherence (samavāya), and the eternal dravyas are individuated by their own ultimate particularity (viśeṣa). It is the category over which the other six are draped.

## Audience Metaphor

Think less 'lump of matter' and more 'the nine kinds of surface reality can be written on'. Some are physical (the four elements' atoms), some are vast and invisible (space, time, ether), one is the conscious self, one is the mind that scans it. Dravya is the category of write-on surfaces; qualities and motions are the writing. A surface with nothing written is still a surface, but it is never just a blank peg, it is one of exactly nine real kinds.

## Citations

1. Vaiśeṣika Sūtra 1.1.5 (the nine substances) -- see [references/vaisheshika-sutra.md](../references/vaisheshika-sutra.md)
2. Praśastapāda, Padārthadharmasaṃgraha, on dravya -- see [references/padarthadharmasamgraha.md](../references/padarthadharmasamgraha.md)
3. Cross-category: paramanu.md and atman.md (this bundle) -- atomic and conscious substances
