A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.299

v2.c34.299

The original Pudgalas being homogeneous and indeterminate, all sensible qualities, including the infra-sensibe qualities of atoms, are the result of evolution (परिणाम). Every atom thus evolved possesses an infra-sensible (or potential) taste, smell and colour, (one kind of each) and two nfra-sensible tactile qualities, *e.g.* a certain degree of roughness or smoothness (or dryness and moistness?) and of heat or cold. Earth-atoms, Ap-atoms, *etc.* are but differentiations of the originally homogeneous Pudgalas. The tactile qualities (खर, स्निग्ध, उष्ण, शीत) appear first, but qualities of taste, smell and colour are involved in the possession of tactile qualities. An aggregate (Skandha), whether binary, tertiary or of a higher order, possesses (in addition to touch, taste, smell, and colour) the following physical characters:—(1) sound, (2) atomic linking, or mutual attraction and repulsion of atoms, (3) dimension, small or great, (4) figure, (5) divisibility, (6) opacity and casting of shadows, and (7) radiant heat and light.