A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.290

v2.c34.290

(2) Change due to combination with other substances (द्रव्यान्तरसंयोग). Such combination may produce (1) a compound substance possessing like qualities with the constituents (समानजातीयोत्पत्ति), or (2) unlike compounds with new qualities, “heteropathic effects” (विजातीयोत्पत्ति). Any new quality thus evolved through (chemical) combination is called Samhata-bhúta-dharma (संहतभूतधर्म्म). *e.g.* the intoxicating power of the fermented rice and molasses, which does not exist in the ingredients taken separately. (मद्यबीजानां प्रत्येकं अवर्त्तमानापि समुदायशक्ता मदशक्तिः दृश्यते). This Sambhúyakriyā (सम्भूयक्रिया, समुत्थान) corresponds to chemical combination, and the Vedāntists, like the Sānkhyas, explain this only as the evolution of the latent energy (शक्ति, अनुद्भूतशक्ति) in a new collocation (संस्थान, अवयव-सन्निवेश). But, unlike the mediæval Sāṅkhya, the Vedānta freely recogúises the combination of heterogeneous Bhútas. Thus, Earth, Ap, Tejas and Vāyu freely combine in different proportions and groupings to produce the variety of substances in the world. For example, the animal organism is a compound of all the five Bhútas (पाञ्चभौतिक). It is not merely the concomitant or efficient causes that may be heterogeneous to the material cause, as the Naiyāyikas contend, but several heterogeneous substances (or Bhútas) may unite as ‘material causes’ to produce a new substance.