Vaiśeṣika is one of six philosophical schools or darśanas. The common denominator among all schools was the acceptance of the authority of the Vedas and the idea that true knowledge enables achieving salvation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara). Vaiśeṣika, however, offered a naturalistic framework, classifying entities into categories (padārthas) and positing atoms (paramāṇu) as the building blocks of matter. Although in our Western intellectual landscape we associate Democritus as the father of atomism, who paved the way for discoveries in 20th-century physics, the metaphysics of Vaiśeṣika is oddly modern. Although there is textual evidence that Democritus, as well as other Presocratic thinkers, traveled to the East, it is hard to establish direct connections.   The Invention of Vaiśeṣika: When, Where, Who? Illustration of gurus from the printed publication of the Suraj Prakash, 1884. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Vaiśeṣika takes its name from the Sanskrit word viśeṣa, meaning “particularity” or “distinction,” and referring to existing, different, innumerable, individual entities. Its central concern is how to classify and explain reality in its …