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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
mentions triangular, square and rectangular shapes in addition to them and another which is none of them.
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Taste The Vaibhāṣikas maintain that taste is the aggregate of a class of atoms. So, according to them, it is a substantial entity. Those atoms called taste are endowed with the nature distinct from colour, shape, and sound-atoms. Like other atoms, i. e. colour-atoms, etc., taste-atom also is modifiable (savikāra) and impenetrable (sapratigha). Thus, because of being modifiable and impenetrable, taste-atom also will be included in Rupa (Matter). For this reason they have been included in rupaprasāda. Like the Vaiseṣika the Vaibhāṣika school divides taste into six kinds, viz. madhura (sweet), amla (acidic), lavana (saltish), katu (sour), kaṣāya (astringent) and tikta bitter), though it is mainly divided into infinite kinds from the secondary points of view. Various kinds of tastes are produced by different kinds of mixtures of taste-atoms. It is to be noted that here six kinds of taste are mentioned, whereas in Jaina Metaphysics only five kinds of taste are enumerated. The basic difference between the two views in regard to the number of tastes is this that the Buddhist Philosophy has accepted the saltish taste as an additional one on the basis of the Vaiseṣika doctrine of Matter.
Smell: In the Vaibhāṣika view smell is the aggregate of a class of atoms. These atoms also are distinct from other atoms. According to this concept, bhautikatva (materiality) is the general characteristic of smell. In the smell-entity which has not been the object of smelling perception (or sensation) of any being, the objectivity of perception produced by the sense of smell cannot be called the general characteristic of smell, because it will be avyāpta (non-related or non-pervasive). Smell is mainly divided into two kinds, viz. pleasant and unpleasant as they are found in the Jaina and Nyaya-Vaiśesika systems of thought. On the basis of intensity and non-intensity in each of them they are sub-divided into four kinds-two kinds of pleasant smell and two kinds of unpleasant smell.
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