Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy

SR No.: 001663
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J C Sikdar
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 412
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Physics
File Size: 23 MB

Page 198

F
Properties of Matter
qualities or that which increases the bulk of them." "It is that which heaps them well together, without allowing them to be scattered about or that which imbibes (absorbs) them or that which holds or collects them together as it were by imbibition."
153
Leaving aside the etymological derivation of apo from apeti, appayati, pāti or pivati, it is to be observed that both the Ceylonese and Burmese traditions suggest that apo is 'cohesion' (bandhanattanarūpassa).
The mass is held together by the force of cohension; on its removal by splitting the mass, only cohension-the force of attraction is left in them. In the case of the reduction of the fragments to smaller particles, it exists inhering in upto the ulimate individual atoms. This fact shows the correctness of the phrase "diffuses or locates itself by pervading its co-existent qualities." The phrase "increase the bulk of them" is justified by the thing that a great body is constituted of smaller bodies by this force of attraction (cohesion). The remaining phrases are justified by the fact that cohesion holds together a mass of matter.4
"Poggharana-svabhava" or fluidity is accepted as the characteristic mark (lakkhana) of water, while regarding cohe1. Āpeći sahajātarūpāṇi pattharati, appāyati vā rūheti vaḍḍhetiti apo (Ceylon, Cyclopaedia, p. 167 on Abhidham matthaSamgaha), vide Compendium of Philosophy, p. 268. No mention is made of watery element (apo).
2. Āpeti sahajatarūpāṇi vyāpetva titthati;...avippakinṇāṇi katvā bhuso Pāti rakkhati pivati va pivanto viya tāni saṁganhati sampinḍetīti apo, Ledi, Sadaw, p. 246. It is to be noted that water is not that which imbibes, but that which is imbibed Cph. pp. 267-9.
3. Dhammasaṁgani 8, 652; So Buddhaghosa comments on this passage, A. Sl. p. 355, vide Compendium of Philosophy, pp. 268 ff.
4. Compendium of Philosophy, pp. 268 ff.