A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.355.3

v2.c34.355.3

The Nyáya-Vaiseshika rejects force, power, operation ( शक्ति ) except as modes of motion. Jayanta indeed states: we do not acknowledge any mysterious power or operation, which the senses do not and cannot report to us. But this denial of Force ( शक्ति ) and of unperceived and unperceivable operation ( अतीन्द्रियव्यापार ) is put forward as a philosophical ( epistemological and metaphysical ) proposition to justify the Nyáya analysis of the causal nexus into mere invariable and unconditional antecedence among phenomena without productive power or efficiency ( अन्यथासिद्धि शून्यस्य नियतपूर्ववर्त्तिता—Bháshá-Parichchheda). It is not of course intended to question the existence of Parispanda, which is of the nature of motion, and which, though subtile and therefore infra-sensible ( सूक्ष्म and अनुभूत रूप, not अतीन्द्रिय ), is the ultimate form of all physical activity. (परिस्पन्द एव भौतिको व्यापारः करोत्यर्थः । अनीन्द्रियस्तु व्यापारः नास्तीति ब्रूमहे । ......... तस्मात् कारकचक्रेण चलिता जन्यते फलम् । न पुनश्चलनादन्यो व्यापार-उपलभ्यते । Jayanta, Nyáya-Mañjarí, Áhnika I ). The effect (no less than the action) is, in all cases of material causation, the resultant of the combined motions of the various (material and efficient) causes involved (e. g. in the case of पाक-समुदित-देवदत्तादि सकलकारकनिकरपरिस्पन्द एव विशिष्टफलावच्छिन्नः पाक इत्युच्यते । ... अथ व्यापार एवैषः सर्वैः संभूय साध्यते । किं फलेनापराद्धं वः तद्धि संभूय साध्यताम् ।—Jayanta, Nyáya-mañjarí, Áhnika I ).