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 295

The Concept ot Matter in Jaina Philosophy
the difference between the atomicity of Matter of the Samkhya-Yoga and the atomicity of Matter of the Jaina and Nyaya-Vaiseṣika systems of thought, as the latter advocatethat a paramāņu is indivisible.
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Dr. B. N. Seal explains the conception of paramāņu in the Samkhya-Yoga philosophy in this way: "In a mixed substance (militadravya, saṁhatabhūtārtha) whether it be an "isomeric' or a heterogenic compound, the quantities are due to the mixture, and therefore its paramāņu (usually called rambhaka paramāņu), the smallest homogeneous particle possessing its characteristic qualities, must result from the mixture of the paramāņus (in smaller or larger numbers as the case may be) of the component substances. In the Samkhya view, then, the paramāņus of a mixed substance ( Arambhaka paramāņu) corresponds to what we now call molecules."1
According to the Samkhya-Yaga Philosophy", a paramāņu is a type of atoms corresponding to each Bhuta class, and indeed one and the same kind of paramāņu may comprehend atoms of different masses, if only these should agree in their structural type."2
This nature of paramāņu differs from the Jaina view of one class of paramāņu, but it is akin to the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika and Buddhist concepts of different classes of atoms corresponding to different elements of Matter. But the difference of views on the point lies in the fact that paramāņus of the Samkhya-Yoga are generated, whereas paramāņus of the Nyaya-Vaiśesika are the ultimate causes of the material universe and the Buddhist paramāņus are saṁghataparamāņus (combined atoms). In the Samkhya-Yoga the generation of paramāņus are conceived in the following order: "Äkāśa-atom
Nanunityata na nirbhagatvaṁ, pṛthiviparamānuḥ jalaparamāṇurityādivyavaharastu pṛthivyādīnām apakarṣakāsthābhiprayeṇaiya, PBhā., V. 88. Vijñānabhikṣu.
1. P. S. A. H., p. 52.
2. Ibid., p. 40.