काणादं पाणिनीयं च सर्वशास्त्रोपकारकम्।
The काणादशास्त्र or Vaisheshika system is one among the major shad darshanas or six philosophies of Bharat, the others being – Nyaya, Meemamsa, Vedanta, Yoga, and Sankhya. It is Sage Kanada who propounded the Vaisheshika system popularly called Padartha shastra. It deals with material entities and the Physical World. Kanada holds that one will attain Liberation by knowing the characteristics of the entities. Means of valid knowledge is what the Nyaya system deals with. Though scholars understand Nyaya and Vaisheshika systems as identical ones, they are different in many respects.
The Vaisheshika system deals with the establishment of Isvara by inference, explanation about Dharma & Adharma, the necessity of Samavaya, Vishesha, and other entities like Shabda in contrast to Nyaya shastra.
The Vaisheshika has categories not only for space-time-matter but also for attributes related to the perception of matter. It starts with six nameable and knowable categories (Padarthas). The categories are Dravya (substance), Guna (quality). Karma (motion), Samanya (Universal), Vishesha (particularity), and Samavaya (inherence). The first three of these have objective existence and the last three are a product of abstraction and intellectual discrimination.