The Institutes of Akbar 27.1

27.1

The Creator by calling into existence the four elements, has raised up wonderful forms. Fire is absolutely warm, dry, light; air is relatively warm, moist, light; water is relatively cold, moist, heavy; earth is absolutely cold, dry, heavy. Heat is the cause of lightness, and cold of heaviness; moistness easily separates particles, whilst dryness prevents their separation. This wonderful arrangement calls four compounds into existence, first, the usdr t’ulwt; secondly, stones; thirdly, plants; fourthly, animals. From the heat of the sun, watery particles become lighter, mix with the air, and rise up. Such a mixture is called bukhdr (gas). From the same cause, earthy particles mix with the air, and rise up. This mixture is called dukhdn (vapour). Sometimes, however, airy particles mix with the earth. Several philosophers call both of the above mixtures bukhdr, but distinguish the mixture of watery particles and air by the name of moist, or watery bukhdr, whilst they call the mixture of earthy particles and air, dry bukhdr, or dukhdnt bukhdr (vapour-like gas). Both mixtures, they say, produce above the surface of the earth, clouds, wind, rain, snow, &c.; and, below the surface of our earth, earthquakes, springs, and minerals. They also look upon the bukhdr as the body, and upon the dukhdn as the soul of things. From a difference in their quality and quantity, various bodies are called into existence, as described in books on philosophy.