History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c39.s2.15

c39.s2.15

Space must be distinguished as *desa* (locus or rather extension) and *dik* (relative position). Space (*dik*), as the totality of position, or as an order of co-existent points, is wholly relative to the understanding, like order in time, being constructed on the basis of relations of position intuited by our empirical (or relative) consciousness. But there is this difference between the Space-order and Time-order.—there is no unit of Space as position (*dik*), though we may conceive a unit of Time, viz, the moment regarded as the unit of change in the phenomenal or causal series Spatial position (*dik*) results only from the different relations in which the all-pervasive *akasa* stands to the various finite (or bounded) objects On the other hand, Space as extension or locus of a finite body, *desa*, has an ultimate unit, being analysable into the infinitesimal extensive quantity inherent in the Reals (*gunas*) of *Prakriti*