( sa, प्रशस्तपाद) was an ancient Indian philosopher. He wrote the ''Padārtha-dharma-saṅgraha'' (Collection of Properties of Matter) and a commentary, titled ''Praśastapāda Bhāṣya'', on the
Vaisheshika Sutra
Vaisheshika or Vaiśeṣika ( sa, वैशेषिक) is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy (Vedic systems) from ancient India. In its early stages, the Vaiśeṣika was an independent philosophy with its own metaphysics, epistemolog ...
s of Kanada (circa 6th century BCE); both texts are comprehensive books in physics. In these texts Prashastapada discusses the properties of motion. Ganganath Jha had translated ''Praśastapāda Bhāṣya'' which was published in 1916. ''Prashasta'' or ''Praśasta'' (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
: प्रशस्त) means praised or praiseworthy, lauded or laudable, commended or commendable or eulogized.
Dayananda Saraswati
Dayanand Saraswati () (born Mool Shankar Tiwari; 2 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) also known as Maharshi Dayanand is an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. His Magnum Opus is the book ...
writes that the
Sutra
''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an ap ...
s of Kanāda and ''Padārthadharmasaṅgraha'' of Praśastapāda do not show much influence of the
Nyaya
(Sanskrit: न्याय, ''nyā-yá''), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment",Udayanacharya of the Navya-Nyāya School, the author of ''Lakṣaṇāvalī'' which gives the definitions of Vaiśeṣika terms, and '' Nyāya Kusumanjali'' which is a systematic account of Nyaya Theism, who also belonged to Mithila, had written ''Kiranavali'' which is a commentary on ''Praśastapāda Bhāṣya''.
Praśastapāda can be tentatively dated to the second half of the 6th century C.E. The Vaiśeṣika philosophy recognizes twenty-four '' gunas'' or qualities that are inherent in substances; these include seventeen gunas listed by Kanada and seven gunas – ''gurutva'' (heaviness), ''dravatva'' (fluidity), ''sneha'' (viscidity), ''dharma'' (merit), ''adharma'' (demerit), ''shabda'' (sound) and ''samskara'' (faculty) - added by Praśastapāda. ''Vyomavati'' of Vyomaśekhara, ''Nyayakandali'' of Shridhara, ''Kiranavali'' of Udayana and ''Lilavati'' of Śrīvatsa are well known commentaries on his works.
Praśastapāda refers to a type of perception that is the simple intuition (''alochana'') of the proper form (''svarupa'') of an entity, which is the apprehension of an undifferentiated (''avibhktam'') whole arising from cognition of its specific universals. This is the preliminary stage. He differs from Dignāga for whom the determinates of cognitions are subjective constructs imposed upon the given, and constructive cognition is not a perception; Praśastapāda, who was a realist, avers that the determinates are objective constituents of reality and their conceptual co-relates are not inter-subjective fictions. Praśastapāda by redefining substance as per se a possessor of attributes opened new turf by separating the cosmological from the logical dimensions of concepts. His commentary overshadowed the Vaisheshika Sutras and became the main vehicle for later commentaries. Praśastapāda describes the dissolution of the earth, water, air and fire in terms of their atomic constituents but excludes space because space is non-atomic. With regard to the conjoining and disjoining of atoms he includes a higher will or order as the guiding principle of universal dissolution which over-rides the natural karma of atoms.
Kaṇāda does not directly refer to Ishvara (God) but Praśastapāda sees Ishvara as the cause of the universe but does not explain how God creates.