History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c39.s3.5

c39.s3.5

The first stadium *bhutadi* is absolutely homogeneous and absolutely inert, being devoid of all physical and chemical characters except quantum or mass (*parichchinnatva*, *pariman*) and this admits neither of addition nor of subtraction, can neither be created nor destroyed The second stadium *tanmatra* represents subtile matter, vibratory, impingent, radiant, etc., instinct with potential energy These potentials arise from the unequal aggregations of the original mass-units in different proportions and collocations with an unequal distribution of the original Energy (*rajas*). The *tanmatras* possess something more than quantum of Mass and Energy. They possess physical characters, some of them penetrability, others, powers of impact or pressure, others, radiant heat, others again capability of viscous and cohesive attraction In intimate relation to these physical characters they also possess the potentials of the energies represented by sound, touch, colour, taste and smell, but being subtile matter they are devoid of the peculiar forms which these potentials assume in particles of gross matter like the atoms and their aggregates. In other words, the potentials lodged in subtile matter must undergo peculiar transformations by new groupings or collocations to be classed among sensory stimuli,—gross matter being supposed to be matter endowed with properties of the class of sensory stimuli, though in the minutest particles thereof the sensory stimuli may be infra-sensible.