Since the dawn of human history, matter, the various forms of which are experienced with the sense organs, has been a great wonder to man. It has, therefore, become a concept for philosophical as well as scientific enquiry. The conception of matter in the western philosophy is quite elastic. Even in science-in modern physics-the conception has gone through a series of developments. According to Indic Philosophy, the universe is divisible into Self (Atman) and non-self (acetana). What is understood by non-self is really the matter. Without proper understanding of the matter the nature of self cannot be correctly comprehended and it remains beyond one’s reach. Consequently the syncretic school of Nyaya-Vaisesika lays special emphasis on proper knowledge of the matter, which ultimately leads to the highest goal of human life i.e. Self-realization. The learned author of the present work has made an attempt to bring out the Nyaya-Vaisesika considerations about matter in a systematic and easy-to-comprehend way. He has taken great pain not to leave unnoticed any work that is available on the subject. He has specially stressed the physical and metaphysical view points of the subject and there is no doubt that he has brought together a vast mass of informative and illuminating material relevant to the topic. He has gone beyond the ground traversed by most of his predecessors in the field and in certain interpretations, has displayed sufficient insight and power of synthetic imagination. The work is an immensely useful addition to the literature on Indian Philosophy.
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