The Concept of Dravya in Yogācāra and Vaiśeṣika: a Comparative Philosophical Analysis

The concept of dravya is used both in Buddhism and Brāhmaṇical systems of philosophy, but its meanings there are quite different. According to Vaiśeṣika as one of the Brāhmaṇical systems dravya is a real substance independent of any knowing subject and reality is constituted by relations between substances. In Yogācāra Buddhism, on the opposite, substances are regarded as mere designations existing only in dependence of a knowing subject. Any entity may be treated as a substance or a mere conceptualization depending on a concrete situation with the perspective of nirvāṇa.