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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
only the quality of touch.1
According to Jaina philosophy, air possesses not only colour and touch but also taste and smell. Modern science has clearly proved that it is a material substance, for when the energy (heat) of molecular agitation is very great, its temperature rises creating the sensation of fire. It is a form of energy which is a modification of matter, for energy is the attenuated form of matter and matter is a bottled energy. So they are identical. The qualities of matter are associated with fire, as it is demonstrated that “the flame consists of incandesent matter, raised to a high temperature by the process of combustion and that flame can exist only so long as the combustion goes on and a sufficiently high temperatura is thereby maintained to render the burning matter luminous. The flame is the outward visible sign of certain chemical and physical process, of action and reaction between the material which is being burnt and the atmosphere which surrounds it.”2
The Jaina Āgama, the Bhagavati Vyākhyāprajñapti throws a side light upon this theory of fire by making a similar scientific analysis of the burning of fire in a lamp in connection with the holy teachings of Mahāvira in this way: A lamp, its stand, wick, oil and cover do not burn, but fire in the wick burns."'3 It is the well-known theory that the oil of the lamp is sucked by the capillary action caused by the heat of fire burning at the tip of the wick. Therefore, fire is included in the category of Pudgaladravya (material substance).
According to the Nyāya-Vaišeșika school, earth possesses.
1. Tarkasamgraha, 13, p. 9; VS., II. 2. 4;
Muktāvaly, 42. 2. Outlines of Evolutionary Biology, p. 2; Cosmology,
Old and New, p. 79, foot note. 3. Na padive jhiyāi na latthi jhiyāi na vatti jhiyāi na
tele jhiyāi, etc. Bhs., 9. 6. 333.
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