Ramkrishna Bhattacharya examines the intellectual debate between Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya and Joseph Needham on the Indian concept of svabhāva. Analyzing classical Sanskrit and medical texts alongside Chinese parallels (Tao), he demonstrates that svabhāva encompasses both causality and accidentalism (yadṛcchā), challenging its oversimplified equation with deterministic “laws of nature.”