Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/269

VII] Evolution oj' Atoms 253 vayu-atom. The light-and-heat potentials combine with touch- potentials and sound-potentials to produce the tejas-atom. The taste-potentials combine with light-and-heat potentials, touch- potentials and sound-potentials to generate the ap-atom and the smell-potentials combine with the preceding potentials to generate the earth-atom. The akasa-atom possesses penetrability, the vayu- atom impact or mechanical pressure, the tejas-atom radiant heat and light, the ap-atom viscous attraction and the earth-atom cohesive attraction. The akasa we have seen forms the transition link from the bhiitadi to the tanmatra and from the tanmatra to the atomic production; it therefore deserves a special notice at this stage. Sarpkhya distinguishes between a karaI).a-akasa and karyakasa. The karaI).a-akasa (non-atomic and all-pervasive) is the formless tamas-the mass in prakrti or bhlitadi; it is indeed all-pervasive, and is not a mere negation, a mere un- occupiedness (ii'l}araliibhiiva) or vacuum 1. Vhen energy is first associated with this tamas element it gives rise to the sound- potential; the atomic akasa is the result of the integration of the original mass-units from bhiitadi with this sound-potential (Sabda tallnziitra). Such an akasa-atom is called the karyakasa; it is formed everywhere and held up in the original karaI).a akasa as the medium for the development of vayu atoms. Being atomic it occupies limited space. The aharpkara and the five tanmatras are technically called avisea or indeterminate, for further determinations or differentia- tions of them for the formation of newer categories of existence are. possible. The eleven senses and the five atoms are called visea, i.e. determinate, for they cannot further be so determined as to form a new category of existence. It is thus that the course of evolution which started in the prakrti reaches its furthest limit in the production of the 5enses on the one side and the atoms on the other. Changes no doubt take place in bodies having atomic constitution, but these changes are changes of quality due to spatial changes in the position of the atoms or to the intro- duction of new atoms and their re-arrangement. But these are not such that a newer category of existence could be formed by them which was substantially different from the combined atoms. 1 Dr B. N. Seal in describing this iikiisa says II Akiisa corresponds in some respects to the ether of the physicists and in others to what may be called proto-atom (protyle)." Ray's History ofHi1Zdu Chemistry, p. 88.