A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c29.2

v2.c29.2

Before concluding, I must advert to my use of the terms “isomeric” and “polymeric” in senses different from the current ones, though suggested by the principle of analogous extension. Instead of coining new terms, I adopted (perhaps with a questionable freedom) these existing ones to express the Hindu idea of distinctions of chemical substances due merely to difference in spatial position or arrangement among the particles, without any implications whatever as to percentage composition or molecular weight. A study of the original sources has made it clear to me that a "Bhúta" in Hindu Chemistry represents a class of elements composed of similar atoms, and the different elementary substances comprised under one and the same "Bhúta" are 'isomers', in this limited sense, in reference to the atoms, being specifically constituted by differences of spatial position and arrangement among the latter. This is true of the Sánkhya-Pátañjala and the Nyáya-Vaiseshika alike. But, in the Sánkhya-Pátañjala, the atoms themselves are composed of Tanmátras; and in one view, the atoms that enter into the "isomeric" modes of the same "Bhúta" are themselves "stereo-isomers" in reference to the Tanmátras. A tri-Tanmátric atom, for example, may have different isomeric forms which would account for the divers modes of the "Bhúta" originating with this class of atoms. Hence under the Sánkhya Pátañjala, I speak of "isomeric" atoms, while under the Nyáya-Vaiseshika I confine myself to the phrase "isomeric modes of the same Bhúta". It appears to me also that in the Sánkhya-Pátañjala view, while an atom of a particular kind (say a tri-Tanmátric or a tetra-Tanmátric one) may have "isomeric" forms of its own, the atoms of the different “Bhúta” classes (from the mono-Tanmátric to the penta-Tanmátric) are what may in a broad sense be termed polymers of the Ákása Tanmátra and Bhutadi (matter-rudiment). Under the Sánkhya-Pátanjala, therefore, I have spoken of “polymeric” atoms and “polymeric” combinations of these, though I must confess that I have done so with great diffidence and hesitation.