The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c10.4

c10.4

*Perception.*—The conditions of Perception, and its range and limits, were carefully studied. The minima sensibile (*e.g.* the minimum visibile, the Trasarenu, the just-perceptible mote in the slanting sunbeam), the infra-sensible (अनुद्भूतरूप, सूक्ष्म, sometimes termed अतीन्द्रिय), the obscured (अभिभूत, *e.g.* a meteor in the mid-day blaze), and the potential (अनुद्भूतवृत्ति), are distinguished; but finer instruments of measurement were wanting, and this was a principal cause of arrested progress. It may be noted that the measurement of the relative pitch of musical tones was remarkably accurate (*vide* my Paper on Hindu Mechanics and Physics).