Almost nothing is known about Kanada's life. His name may mean 'atom-eater.' He founded the Vaisheshika school, which proposed that all matter is composed of indivisible, eternal atoms of earth, water, fire, and air. These atoms combine in pairs, then in larger groups, to form the visible world. The system also includes a detailed theory of categories: substance, quality, action, universality, individuality, and inherence. It is one of the oldest systematic atomic theories in human history.
Kanada reasoned that all physical things must be composed of indivisible particles he called anu. Everything we see, he argued, is a combination of these atoms in different arrangements. The idea preceded Greek atomism by possibly a century, though the two traditions developed independently.