Causes in nyāya – samavāyi kāraṇa

It is common to hear the terms ‘samavāyi kāraṇa’, ‘asamvāyi kāraṇa’, and nimitta kāraṇa, which are the three types of causes in nyāya. In this series, I examine what these terms mean, along with examples. I based this discussion on Śrī Devadatta Pātil Śarmā’s excellent Sanskrit book, Vidyādharī, which is a commentary to the Tarka-Sangraha.

Criteria for being a cause

To determine whether a particular entity is a kāraṇa or cause for an effect that is to be produced, one must check whether it satisfies the following criteria —

1. It must be present in the substratum in which the effect is present
2. It must always be present in the substratum in which the effect is present
3. It must be present in the substratum before the effect is produced.

We can represent the co-location of the cause and effect as follows:

Samavāya sambandha

Samavāya sambandha refers to the relation between two entities that cannot be separated from each other without destruction of one of them. For example, a pot is never seen to exist without its parts, which is clay. It is not that its parts, the clay, exists separately, the pot exists separately, and the two can ever be observed to come in contact with each other. The relation of contact between two dravyas is called samyoga. Samavāya is not samyoga, because samyoga refers to contact between two entities that previously existed separately from each other. Samyoga is not possible between entities that are related to each other by samavāya.

Samavāya sambandha exists between

1. guṇas and guṇis (dravyas) (e.g. color and pot),
2. avayavas (parts) and avayavis (wholes) (e.g. clay and pot),
3. kriyā (action) and that which has the action (kriyavān) (e.g. rotational motion in the pot on the potter’s wheel),
4. jāti (common attribute) and vyakti (individual), (e.g. potness and pot)
5. viśeṣa and nitya-dravyas (eternal substances) (e.g. viśeṣa in atoms of the same type)

Samavāyi kāraṇa

The samavāyi kāraṇa is that in which the effect to be produced comes to exist by samavāya sambandha. For example, a pot is produced in clay by samavāya sambandha; the relation is samavāya because a whole and its parts are related by samavāya. Likewise, an action is produced in a ball by samavāya, because kriyā and kriyāvān have samavāya sambandha. Color is produced in a pot by samavāya sambandha, because guṇa and guṇin have samavāya sambandha. Thus, clay, the ball, and the pot are samavāyi kāraṇas for the pot, the action, and the color respectively.

The samavāyi kāraṇa can be more formally thought of as a specific type of cause, in which the cause is present in the substratum by tādātmya sambandha, while the effect is present in the substratum by samavāya sambandha. The scheme is as follows:

Tādātmya sambandha is a peculiar relation that is posited in nyāya between an entity and itself. This allows the samavāyi cause to exist in the same substratum as the effect. Below are a few examples.

In (a), the clay, being present in itself by tādātmya sambandha, generates the pot by samāvaya sambandha. In (b), the pot, being present in itself by tādātmya sambandha, produces the pot-color by samavāya sambandha. In (c), the pot, being present in itself by tādātmya sambandha, gives rise to action by samavāya sambandha.

Also, the clay precedes the pot; the pot precedes the pot-color (this is another pecularity of nyāya, in that when a dravya is produced, it is for a moment, devoid of guṇa or karma; utpannaṁ dravyaṁ kṣaṇamekaṁ nirguṇaṁ niṣkriyaṁ ca tiṣṭhati), and the pot precedes the action. In this way, these individual objects satisfy the criteria for being the kāraṇa.

The above scheme allows sāmānādhikaraṇam, that is, being located in the same substratum, for the cause and effect. Note, however, just sāmānādhikaraṇam does not imply a cause-and-effect relation. For example, in a moving pot, both motion and color co-exist:

However, because one of the relation or sambandhas is not tādātmya, there is no cause and effect relation between these entities. This is one reason the scheme is created as above to define the samavāyi kāraṇa.

In the next article, I will examine asamavāyi kāraṇa, and later, nimitta kāraṇa.