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Properties of Atom
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tion-qualities). There are two hundred basic groups of paramānus (5 x 5 x2x8) and there are infinitefold infinite groups of paramāņus according to the degrees of capacities of bhāvaguņas (varna, gandha, rasa and sparsa=colour, smell, taste and touch). 1 As for example, one paramāņu is black, pleasantsmelled, sweet, and warm and dry. The other paramāņu is red, but the remaining qualities are like those of the first paramānu. It (first one) can become many paramāņus having bhāvaguņas (condition-qualities), i. e. atoms of qualities, they are of one basic group of paramāņus. The second paramāņu also, having bhāva-guņas, can become many paramāņus, hence these are paramāņus of the second basic class. There become two hundred basic groups of paramāņus by addition of the remaining basic groups of paramāņus having their respective properties.
Next, the colour of the first paramānu is black and onefold black, the other paramāņu of this group is twofold black, some of this group is threefold black, some is fourfold black, thus innumerablefold black and some is infinitefold black. In this way there can be infinite subgroups of paramāņus according to the degree of onefold up to infinitefold capacity of each bhāvaguņa existing in each individual basic group of paramāņu.2
CONTACT OF ATOMS There are stated to be nine alternatives of sparśatā (contact or mere touch of paramāņu), viz. (1) one part touched by one 1. Evam ca sparśanādināmekaikasya ekadvitricatuḥ sam
khyeyā asamkheyānantagunapariņāmo avaseyaḥ, RV., p. 485; Anantabhedā api pudgalā anujātyā skandhajātyā ca dvaividhyamāpadyamānāḥ sarve gļhyanta iti jātyädhärānanta
bhedasamsūcanarthaí bahuyacanas kriyate, RY., p. 491. 2. BhS., 20. 5. 668; 25. 4. 740; Pudgalaşattriņšikā, pp. 5, 6.
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