Jain Journal 1988 10

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

Page 34

OCTOBER, 1988
It is admitted by the Vaibhasikas that an atom has six sides, but it is maintained by them that "they make but one or what comes to the same that the space within an atom cannot be divided".
Their view is refuted by the Naiyayikas in an old verse quoted in the Nyayavārtika.92 Their conception that atoms are amenable to senseknowledge, though they were not visible apart, "just as a dim sighted man sees a mass of hair, though he cannot see a single hair", 93 is also disputed by the Nayayikas, according to whom, atom is transcendental and intangible to the sense.
one
According to the Sautrantikas, the aggregate of seven atoms is the smallest compound (anu)94; the spherical atom does not touch another completely, but there was an intervening space between them. One thing emerges out of this discussion of Atomism that it is indivisible according to all Indian systems of thought, though it is admitted by some that it might be regarded as possessing parts, viz., eight sides (aşṭadravyakas). It is maintained by both the Vaibhasikas and the Sautrantikas that atoms are impenetrable (or impassable).
The atoms of the Buddhist philosophy are non-permanent, they emerge from time to time and then they are destroyed "lapsing seemingly into nothingness".95 The ten kinds of atom, i.e., five atoms of five senseorgans and five atoms of sense-objects, are produced due to the four atoms of the four fundamental elements (mahābhūtas) and they would instantly be destroyed, if there were not the sustaining power of the four elemental atoms.96 Therefore, every derivative atom has an atom of each of the fundamental elements with it for its substance.97 The atoms of the four fundamental elements of matter are non-permanent, constantly undergoing change by the process of origination, etc. The phenomenalist atomic conception of the Buddhists is contrary to the Nyaya-Vaisesika, Jaina and other Indian systems of thought.
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98
Nyayavartika of Uddyotakara, pp. 521-22.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. II, p. 201.
'saptadravyavinirbhagi paramanurbahirgatah
kamesvekadhikah kaye dvyadhikascaksuradisu sarvasuksmah khalu', Abhidharma Dipa, p. 60; cf. Abhidharmakosa, II, 22.
95 A Mannual of Buddhist Philosophy by Mc. Govern, p. 127.
96
'dhrtyadikarmasamsiddhah kharasnehosnateranah', Abhidharmakosa, 1. 12. 97 Ibid., 4. 29.
93
94