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Properties of Matter
155
colour says, “colour is the general term for all sensations arising from the activity of the retina and its attached nervous mechanism. It may be examplified by the enumeration of the characteristic instances, such as, red, yellow, blue, black and white."
So the five inherent colours of Pudgala (Matter) as conceived in Jaina Metaphysics agree well with the five natural colours of matter of the physical sciences. In regard to the infinite modes of these five colours, they can be compared with the difference of wave lengths, as "the apparent colour of a material substance depends upon its state of sub-divisions, it becomes lighter as large particles are ground up into smaller ones.”
As to the five kinds of taste, viz. bitter, sour, acidic, sweet, and astringent, it can be said that the modern scientific research has demonstrated that there are in the taste only five general classes, viz, sweet, bitter, saltish, sour, and insipid.3 In regard to the division of smell into two kinds, viz. pleasant and unpleasant, there is no controversy in any Metaphysics and Physics. The four parts of the quality of touch (sparsa) or eight divisions of touch (sparsa) of Jaina Philosophy correspond to the following four physical properties of Matter according to the physical sciences-Scale of hardness (mțdukathina=soft and hard), density ( guru-laghu=heavy and light) temperature (Śtta and usna =cold and warm) and crystalline structure (snigdha-rūkşa=smooth and rough or cohesive and dry).
1. Report of the Colorimetry Committee, 1922, Optical
Society of America, vide Cosmology, Old and New
p. 168. 2. Ibid. 3. See the article “Taste and Chemical Constitution" by A. J.
Mee, M. A., in the Science Progress, October, 1934, vide. Cosmology Old and New, p. 164.
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