History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c40.s3.44

c40.s3.44

B. *Hetero-Bhautic Quasi Compounds:*—The Nyaya-Vaiseshika maintains that in the case of *bi-bhautic* (or *poly-bhautic*) compounds, which are only quasi-compounds, there is another kind of contact between the heterogeneous atoms of the different *bhutas*; this may be called "dynamic contact". In some cases, it so happens that the atoms of different isomeric modes of the same *bhuta* do not chemically combine under the mere application of heat;—they require to be surrounded (and 'excited' or 'energised') by atoms of different *bhutas*. For example, in the case of the oils and fats, as well as of plant saps and fruit juices, the Earth-atoms must be dissolved in water (*ap*), and it is only when the water-atoms (*ap*-atoms) congregate round the former that dynamic intra atomic forces are set up, and the Earth-atoms (with the water atoms in dynamic contact) now take on peculiar infra-sensible characters (colours, tastes, smells) under the impact of the heat-corpuscles, and then, under further impact, fall into groupings or collocations (of a very peculiar nature to be presently explained) which determine the nature of the composite substance thus produced. Here it is the water-atoms that are dynamic, and excite the Earth atoms, and these substances, oils and fats, as well as acids, are, because of the Earth-radicles, regarded as Earth-compounds (or Earth-substances). In the above instances, *ap* (water) acts as dynamic, but *tejas* and *vayu* can also act in the same way on Earth-particles. Conversely, Earth-particles may act dynamically on the atoms of the other *bhutas*. For example, in the case of mercury and the metals which are conceived in the Nyaya-Vaiseshika to be igneous bodies (in fact they are supposed to be formed under the subterranean heat), the *tejas* corpuscles are believed to form the radicles, and the Earth-particles are dynamic.