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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
emits only infra-red rays; in other words, it appears dark or black, then the colour changes to red, then white and finally blue."1
It is to be noted here that these colours are not pigmentary, but natural colours which are assumed by a piece of matter at a different conditions of temperature. Their number is only five, viz. black, red, yellow, white and blue. Hence they are identical with the five kinds of inherent colour of Pudgala (Matter) as conceived in Jaina Philosophy, a
According to some, green should be included in the list of natural colours and black and white are unnecessary, for white is a mixture of green and red pigments and black is the absence of colours. It should be observed here that the above mentioned five colours are not pigmentary. The fundamental coloursred, green, and bluish-violet are needed by a canvas painter to produce a desired colour from them by mixing three powders in different portion, while the three colours - red, yellow and blue are required in tri-colour printing on paper. 3
Even it is demonstrated in the case of the colours of solar spectrum that in case "the red light it cut off from the spectrum by an opaque screen and the remaining six colours then recombined by a prism, the resulting light would be green."4 That means “what appears to be green is only white light minus red."5 Besides, there lies a distinction between a mixture of special colours and that of pigment colours. The mixture of blue and yellow light produces white light, whereas, the mixture of blue and yellow pigments generate a green paint, This demonstrates clearly that the five basic colours of Matter are not special nor pigmentary. The modern definition of 1. Cosmology Old and New, p. 166. 2. Varņa sa pamcavidhaḥ krsna-nila-pita-śukla-lohita bhedāt,
SS., V. 23. 3. Cosmoloy Old and New, p. 164. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.
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