A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c10.t14: Anus or Atoms
A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c10.t14
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Anus or Atoms
v1.c10.t14.1
"What is thought to be peculiar to Kanāda, nay the distinguishing feature of his philosophy, is the theory of Anus or Atoms. They take the place of the Tanmātrās in the Sāmkhya philosophy. Though the idea of an atom is not unknown in the Nyāya-philosophy (Nyāya Sūtras, IV. 2, 4-25), it is nowhere so fully worked out as in the Vaiseshika. Kanāda argued that there must be somewhere a smallest thing that excludes further analysis. Without this admission, we should have a *regressus ad infinitum*, a most objectionable process in the eyes of all Indian philosophers. A mountain, he says, would not be larger than a mustard seed. These smallest and invisible particles are held by Kanāda to be eternal in themselves, but non-eternal as aggregates. As aggregates again they may be organised organs, and inorganic. Thus the human body is earth organised, the power of smelling is the earthly organ, stones are inorganic.
v1.c10.t14.2
"It is, no doubt, very tempting to ascribe a Greek origin to Kanāda's theory of atoms. But suppose that the atomic theory had really been borrowed from a Greek source, would it not be strange that Kanāda's atoms are supposed never to assume visible dimensions till there is a combination of three double atoms (Tryanuka), neither the simple nor the double atoms being supposed to be visible by themselves. I do not remember anything like this in Epicurean authors, and it seems to me to give quite an independent character to Kanāda's view of the nature of an atom.
v1.c10.t14.3
“We are told that water, in its atomic state, is eternal, as an aggregate transient. Beings in the realm of Varuna (god of the sea) are organised, taste is the watery organ, rivers are water inorganic.”
v1.c10.t14.4
“Light in its atomic state is eternal, as an aggregate transient. There are organic luminous bodies in the sun, sight or the visual ray is the luminous organ, burning fires are inorganic.
v1.c10.t14.5
“Air, again, is both atomic and an aggregate. Beings of the air, spirits, etc., are organised air; touch in the skin is the ærial organ, wind is inorganic air. Here it would seem as if we had something not very unlike the doctrine of Empedocles.
v1.c10.t14.6
* * * But though we may discover the same thought in the philosophies of Kanāda and Empedocles, the form which it takes in India is characteristically different from its Greek form.”¹
v1.c10.t14.7
¹ “Indian Philosophy”, pp. 584-85.
Linked texts (1)
- Nyāyasūtra — Akṣapāda Gautama, Sanskrit