History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c40.s3.43

c40.s3.43

(b) *Mono-bhautic compounds of higher orders*:—Again, *mono-bhutic* compounds of the first order may chemically combine to form higher compounds, and as the ultimate *bhuta* substratum is the same, the process of decomposition and recomposition will be essentially the same as before. The only doubtful point is whether in this case the component compound substances are broken up only into their constituent molecules, or into the original homogeneous *bhuta-atoms*. Some of the later Vaisesnika scholiasts hold that the latter happens in every case of chemical composition, however complex; but the earlier Vaiseshika conceived that in the case of compounds of compounds, the decomposition does not proceed so far as the original *bhuta* atoms, but that it is the specifically determined atoms, constituting the molecules of the component compounds, that are transformed under the impact of the heat-corpuscles: and then one such transformed atom (one or more according to another version) from the molecule of one component unites with one similarly transformed atom (one or more according to the other version) from the molecule of the other component. In this hypothesis it is assumed that the atoms are similarly transformed, i e., become endowed with the colour, taste, smell, etc. of the product, the moment before the chemical combination takes place. Similarly, when milk is transformed into curd, one view is that the transformation takes place (under internal heat) in the constituent atoms of the milk molecules, atoms specifically determined as milk, and not in the original atoms of the *bhuta* (or *bhutas*) entering into the composition of milk. In these cases, the atomic contact is called "constituent contact", and all the atoms are equally regarded as material causes of the compound.