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The Concept of Matter in Jaina Philosophy
gories of five elements of Matter-earth, water, fire, air and ākāśa (ether) and their qualities like colour, taste, smell, touch, etc. Therefore, the concept of elements of Matter of the Mimāṁsakas like Prabhākara and Kumārila Bhatta agree, in general, with the Vaiseșika concept of elements of Matter, etc. 1
Criticism of the Nyāya-Vaisesika View on Elements of Matter :
According to the Nyāya-Vaiseșika school of thought, the advocate of many reals, the thought which used to give prominence to the external sensual experience gave main consideration to the aspect of qualities like colour, taste, smell, touch, substantiality, etc., possessed by earthly, aquatic, fiery and airy elements of creation. It accepted the postulation of cause and effect and the law of similarity. In order to have an explanation of the becoming effects in the form of gross elements of these qualities like colour, etc., from their cause, this. philosophy has accepted the causes of these perceptible gross. elements also as endowed with uniform or equal or similar qualities (samānaguņas), and it went forward in search of cause -tradition. In the gross earthly objects the qualities which are experienced must be existing in their causes also, and the cause. will certainly be finer than the effect. Having thought like this, the Nyāya-Vaiseșika finally came to this conclusion that the ultimate cause of earth is only earth and the basic elements of aquatic, fiery and airy creations also must be only of the categories of their respective realities. The material realities which are conceived by it in the form of these ultimate basic causes were accepted as atoms only. The fineness of the ultimate atom falls in the last category of division beyond which. no further division of material elements takes place. * In this way the Nyāya-Vaiśesika has propounded the theory of production of the effect-world on the basis of mutually distinct infinite earthly, aquatic, fiery and airy ultimate atoms. 1. Prakaranapañcikā, p. 78 (pp. 52 ff.); Prabhākaramımānšā,
pp. 35 ff.
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