Abhava meansnon-existence,negation,nothing or absence.[1] It is the negative of Bhava which means being, becoming, existing or appearance.
Uddayana dividesPadārtha (Categories) intoBhava (existence) which is real, andAbhava (non-existence) which is not real.Dravya (substance),Guṇa (quality),Karma (action),Samanya (community or generality),Visesa (particularity) andSamavaya (inherence) are the marks of existence. Four kinds ofAbhava are defined by theVaisheshika School ofHindu philosophy:[2]
The process with which the sound value collapses into the point value of the gap existing between the first and the next syllable of the first letter of theRigveda,Agnim, isPradhvamsabhava, the silent point of all possibilities within the gap isAtyantabhava, the structuring dynamics of what happens within the gapAnyonyabhava, and the mechanics by which the sound emerges from the point value of the gap i.e. emergence of the following syllable, isPragabhava; this mechanism is inherent in both syllables.[3]
TheVaisheshika, theNyaya, the BhattaMimamsa andDvaita schools holdAbhava as a distinct category. Recognised as a reality by the Nyaya school,Abhava is often stated to be the reality of the greatest moment in the pluralistic universe and is connected withMukti.[4] It is a relative word, for there can beabhava only when previously there isbhava; moreover it is an event occurring in time.[5][6] The Nyaya and the Siddhantin maintain that the cognition ofabhava is due to perception involving special kind of contact or sense contact.[7]
Abhava is that unmanifest level from where the concreteBhava arises or emerges.[8]Vasubandhu has referred toSunyata having the characteristic of the own-being ofabhava, rather than a characteristic consisting ofbhava.Sthiramati observes that this is, in fact, not redundant, meaningabhava does not negatebhava.[9]Abhava refers to particular entities and not toBeing; it is a theoretical or logical denial of the existence of some particular impossibility.[10] The acceptance of abhava as an independent padartha having ontological reality of its own is a peculiar feature of Indian philosophical tradition.Dharmakirti consideredabhava as ananumana. He had brought in the idea of imaginary presence of that whose absence was apprehended in order to explain the specificity of the absence.[11]
