History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c39.s4.1

c39.s4.1

The five *bhutas* stand for a classification of substances on the basis of their generic properties resulting, as the Samkhyas hold, from the structural type of their constituent atoms—a classification more physical than chemical, or properly speaking chemico-physical, unlike the purely chemical classification of the so-called elements of modern chemistry. A *paramanu*, again, is a type of atom corresponding to each *bhuta* class, and indeed one and the same kind of *paramanu* may comprehend atoms of different masses, if only these would agree in their structural type