This collection is a Festschrift that engages the life-long scholarship of a leading figure in contemporary Indian philosophy, ShashiPrabha Kumar. In particular, this book focuses on the system of Vaiśeṣika, one of the earliest schools of Indian philosophy that competes with Aristotle’s physics for a schemata of categories of all that exists. This edited volume brings together a unique array of philosophers and Sanskritists from around the world, each covering some aspect of the scholarly forays of Professor ShashiPrabha Kumar and her fifty years of experience and writing within the field.

The contributors make critical use of categories that arise in the Upaniṣads and the Vaiśeṣika in charting the fabric of the universe, and examining the concepts of atoms, matter, mind, consciousness, self, cognitive states and absence. This text appeals to interdisciplinary students and researchers working at the cross-roads of philosophy, religion, and Hindu studies.

Purushottama Bilimoria specializes in Indian & Cross-Cultural Philosophy, Global Critical Philosophies of Religion, Law (India), and Diaspora studies. A teaching faculty with the University of San Francisco; Principal Fellow in the University of Melbourne (Australia); an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia (Journal of Philosophy & Traditions, Springer), and Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy & Traditions, formerly Distinguished Professor of Law and Global Ethics in O P Jindal University (India). An elected member of European Academy of Arts, Sciences, he is recipient of awards and research grants, including Nehru-US Fulbright Fellowship, John Templeton Foundation, Indian Council for Philosophical Research, Harvard Divinity School (CSWR Visiting Fellow) Public Scholarship with Emory University’s Institute of Liberal Studies. His Recent publications include Routledge History of Indian Philosophy (2019); Contemplative Studies and Hinduism (with Rita D. Sherma, C. Bohenac, 2021); Companion to Indian Ethics: Women, Justice Bioethics and Ecology (with Amy Rayner, 2024); Mind, Body and Self (with J L Shaw, Anand Vaidya, Springer, 2024); Engaging Philosophies of Religion: Across Global Boundaries (with Gereon Kopf and Nathan Loewen, Bloomsbury, 2025).

Agnieszka Rostalska is a philosopher specializing in Indian and cross-cultural philosophy, with a focus on sociopolitical philosophy, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. She currently works on a novel study of the Arthaśāstra as an FWO Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University. In 2022, she held the 'Cross-Cultural Conceptions of the Self' project, funded by the Global Philosophy of Religion Project and the John Templeton Foundation. She is president of the Logic and Religion Association and a board member of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy and the Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. With Nathan R. B. Loewen, she co-edited 'Diversifying Philosophy of Religion’ and 'Philosophies of Self: A Cross-Cultural Introduction,' both published by Bloomsbury.

Devendra Singh is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit Language and Literature at Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He worked as a Project Fellow in a UGC Major Research Project, Research Assistant at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at JNU, and Junior Research Fellow at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. His work focuses on Vedic Studies, Ayurveda, and Indian Philosophy. He has authored five books, over fifteen articles, and organized several conferences, including the 2018 International Conference on Shaktatantra. He presented at several academic events, including the 16th World Sanskrit Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, and lectured to graduate students at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.

Renu K. Sharma is an Assistant Professor of Vedic Studies at the University of Allahabad. She earned her Ph.D. from JNU, New Delhi, was a UGC Post-Doctoral Fellow, and worked as an Assistant Professor at Hindu Girls College, Sonepat, Haryana. Sharma has authored two books and over twenty-five articles. Her key publications include Shatapatha Brahmana mein Darshanika Pratika (2014), Shatapatha Shevadhi (2016), and an essay on Disasters in: The Emerging Threshold of Disaster Law, edited by Amita Singh (Routledge: 2018). She organized a 2019 lecture series at Hindu Girls College funded by the Indian Council for Philosophical Research and participated in conferences including the 16th World Sanskrit Conference (2015), the International Conference Veda as Global Heritage (2016), and the 22nd International Congress of Vedanta (2015).