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Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
of bodies with respect to the spacepoints. This meaning is denoted by the use of grammatical fifth case of ablation. 2. The word 'innumerable' means a quantity beyond numeration. The spacepoints increase innumerable-fold successively prior to the limit of luminous body. 3. The word 'successively' (param param) is supplied here form the previous 2.37. This leads to the innumerability of spacepoints upto the karman body. This is not desirable. Hence, the word 'prior to the luminous body' has been included to preclude this possibility and determine the limit of bodies upto the ejectable one. 4. The word 'with respect to the spacepoints' (pradesatah) is given in the aphorism to indicate that the innumerability is with respect to spacepoints only. It does not refer to the region of occupancy. Thus, the aphorism 2.38 means that (i) the transformable body has innumerable times the number of spacepoints of gross body (ii) the ejectable body has innumerable times the number of spacepoints of the transformable body. Q. What is multiplication factor here? A. It is the innumerableth part of a Palyopama- a pit-based unit. (The minimum value for this unit is app. 10). 5. Q. It is contended that if the bodies have successively increasing innumerable times of the spacepoints, their sizes should also be correspondingly larger or increasing in order. A. This in not correct. The atoms have tendency for specifically close and dense packing. This could be understood from the examples of an iron-ball and a heap of cotton with the same number of atoms. The iron-ball has a very small space occupancy in comparison to the heap of cotton where the atoms occupy more space. Similarly, the occupancy of successive bodies is smaller despite the larger number of atomic spacepoints in them because of specific (dense) packing property of their atomic constituents. Supplementary Notes
The commentary deals with the following points: (a) . The word 'pradesa' has been defined with respect to different grammatical cases. Other terms in 2.38 have also been defined. (b) The fineness of the bodies increases innumerable-fold upto the ejectable body (prior to the luminous body), still their size gets smaller and smaller due to the specific type of space-pointal arrangement in each case like the masses of the cotton and iron-ball. 2. This aphorism indicates the number of spacepoints or atoms found in the atomic aggregates of different bodies. It does not refer to the space occupancy which has already been referred to in the earlier aphorism 2.37.
It must be mentioned that each of the body is made up of atomic aggregates, each formed by infinite number of ideal atoms. These atomic
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