A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c10.t14.1

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.