The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.19

c10.19

*Ascertainment of Inseparableness or Non-disjunction: Buddhist Account.*—First take the case of causation. The cause is the invariable antecedent of the effect. What is meant is that (*a*) a specific cause (or sum of causal conditions) is invariably followed by a specific effect, and (*b*) a specific effect (with all the distinctive and relevant accompaniments, कार्य्यविशेष) is invariably preceded by a specific cause (कारणविशेष). It is not that clouds always lead to rain, or that floods in the river-valley always imply rain in the hills higher up. But this particular conjunction of antecedent circumstances (*e.g.* the appearance of a particular kind of clouds accompanied by flashes of lightning, the roll of thunder and flights of Valákás—driven by the wind from a particular quarter of the horizon, and ascending in black masses, etc.) is as a rule the precursor of a particular assemblage of rain effects (rain with particular accompaniments). Again, this particular kind of flood (overflowing of the river-banks accompanied by muddy discoloration of the water, rapid currents, the bearing down of tree-trunks, etc.) is always preceded by rain in the hills higher up (though, no doubt, other cases of floods in a river may be due to a breach in an embankment or the melting of the snows). In other words, the Buddhists (and the earlier Nyáya schools) avoid the difficulty arising from the plurality of causes by taking into consideration the accompanying phenomena, which, if properly marked, would always point to a specific cause of a specific effect, and *vice versa*.