Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/155

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HINDU CHEMISTRY
5

Grosser Body.

"The grosser body, with which a soul clad in its subtile person is invested for the purpose of fruition, is composed of the five elements, or of four, excluding the ethereal, according to some authorities; or of one earth alone, according to others. That grosser body, propagated by generation, is perishable. The subtile person is more durable, transmigrating through successive bodies, which it assumes, as a mimic shifts his disguises to represent various characters."

We now come to the treatment of the subject by Kanāda in his famous Vaiseshika system. Here also we are indebted to Colebrooke for the following summary. Kanāda arranges the objects of sense in six categories, viz., substance, quality, action, community, difference and aggregation. According to him:—

"I. Substance is the intimate cause of an aggregate effect or product: it is the site of qualities and of action; or that in which qualities abide, and in which action takes place.

"Nine are enumerated, and no more are recognised. Darkness has been alleged by some