Jain Journal 1988 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 33

JAIN JOURNAL
the Abhidharma Hydaya.87 It had an important place in the metaphysics of the Yogacarins in spite of their idealism, but it was refuted by the later Yogacarins, beginning with Dinnaga88 on the ground that it stood on the way of the doctrine of store-house of consciousness (alayavijñāna), i.e., all phenomena emerge from mind.
A detailed study of the atomic theory as conceived in the North does not seem to have been made by the Neo-Sthavira vadin school established by Buddhaghosa, but the use of Kalāpa theory (doctrine corresponding to the concept of saṁghāta-paramāņu of the Sarvastivadins) was made by Buddhaghosa in the Arthaśālini and was admitted as an integral part of the Sarvastivadin philosophy, the idea being mentioned and considerably developed in the Abhidhammattha Samgaha. The name 'paramānu' was attributed to the ultimate units of kalāpa of molecule ; thus the atomic theory is considered to be integral part of the Sarvastivadin.89
According to this school, there are stated to be fourteen kinds of atoms-five atoms of the five sense-organs, five atoms of the five senseobjects and four atoms of four mahābhūtas. In the Sankarabhāş yao also the atomic theory of the Sarvastivadins is described in this way: "These Buddhists acknowledge the four elements-earth, water, fire and wind with their properties and products, including the organs of sense, the four elements are atomic, the earth-atoms have the quality of hardness, the water-atoms that of viscidity, the fire-atoms that of heat and the airatoms that of motion, in combination of these atoms they form early things, etc.”91
*7 'It was translated into Chinese in the third Century A.D.', vide A Mannual of
Buddhist Philosophy, p. 126. Ibid., See alambanapratyaya. Ibid. Sankarabhasya on Brahmasutra II, 2. 18 (samudaya ubhayahetukehapi tadapraptih). 'tatra ye sarvastivadino bahyamantaranca vastvabhyupacchanti bhutani bhautikam cittam caitancatamstavat pratibrumah tatra bhutam prthividhatvadayah bhautikam rupadayascaksuradayacatustaye ca prthivyadi paramanavah kharasnehosneranasvabhavaste prthivyadibhavena samhanyanta iti manyante tatha rupavijnanavedanasamjnasamakarasaminakah pancaskandhah tehapyadhyatmah sanvavyavaharaspadabhavena samhanyanta iti manyate', Saryadarsanasamgraha, p. 24, pamti 14; Sankarabhasya, II, 2.18 ; see Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. II, pp. 521-22.