A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.248

v2.c34.248

The earlier Sánkhyas including the medical schools of ancient India brushed all this aside as a distinction without a difference. The Vedantists, as we shall presently see, flouted this doctrine of Arambha-váda. The Jainas, in opposing this Vaiseshika view of atomic combination, hit upon a solution of the problem of chemical affinity. Others again, found out a via media. They held, as we learn from the reports of Udyotakara in the Nyáya-vártika, and of Váchaspati Misra in the Tátparyyatíká, that a molecule of the structure EA (one atom of Earth and one of Ap) would exhibit some variety of colour and taste resulting from the joint action of the atoms and of their several colours and tastes. But as in the combination EA only the Earth-atom possesses smell, and the Ap-atom is smell-less, and as moreover no quality in a compound substance can result except from the joint action of the similar (potential) qualities of at least two component elements, it follows that a molecule of the structure EA would not manifest the energy of smell potentially contained in the Earth-atom.