Samavaya
(“inherence”) Fundamental category in the Nyaya Vaisheshika philosophical
school's worldview.
This school sees the world as a collection of atomistic
components that are united to produce bigger objects.
Samavaya's primary job is to serve as a subtle glue that
holds many things together: wholes and their pieces, substances and their
qualities, movements and the objects that move, and general traits and their
specific examples.
It also ties the Self to both pleasure and grief.
As a result, samavaya is the glue that holds the cosmos
together.
The philosophical issues highlighted by the concept of inherence—particularly
the assumption that inherence was a single principle rather than a collection
of things—led to the formation of the Navyanyaya school, which tried to explain
these relationships in a more nuanced manner.
