Jaina Gazette 1930 03

Author(s): Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office

Page 8

THE JAINA THEORY OF MATTER 51 substrata by the early Indians. The Elements are the basal principles of the material phenomena which appeal to our senses and the Bhutas may be said to be the ultimate forces or potentialities, underlying the Elements themselves and explaining their capability to be the basis of the sensible phenomena. . The fact that the Bhutas are actually supposed by some of the Indian philosophical systems to be the material basis of our Senses, shows also that the Bhutas were meant to be the ultimate principles, explaining the sensibility of phenomena.
The Charvaka thinkers in India contended that Kshiti, Ap, Tejas and Marut,-ordinarily translated as Earth, Water, Fire and Air,- were the four primordial Bhutas. Of these, Kshiti is the principle which explains Odour (Gandha) of things; Ap accounts for their Taste (Rasa); Tejas, their Colour (Rupa); and Marut, their Touch (Sparsa). From this, some philosophers maintain that each of the Bhutas has only une quality; K'shiti has Gandha, Ap has Rasa and so on. Probably, the Sankhya philosophy would lend support to such a theory. The Naiyayikas, on the contrary while admitting that each of the Bhutas has a prominent quality characteristic of it,-assert that Kshiti has four qualities, Odour, Savour, Colour and Tangibility; Ap has three qualities viz, Savour, Colour and Tangibility; Tejas has two qualities viz., Colour and Tangibility; and Marut has only one quality viz., Tangibility (Vide 3-1-64, Nyaya-sutras). The Vedanta which, while proclaiming the nothingness of the world, admits its reality for practical purposes, maintains the essentially same theory.
According to the Jainas, "material substances are possessed of Tangibility, Taste, Odour and Colour" (Vide. Tattvarthadhigama-Sutra V, 23;. In other words, with the Jainas also, the above four are the qualities of Matter. But while the other Indian schools maintain that there are more than one Bhuta, all ossentially different from one another, the Jainas contend that all Matter is but one substance, having the aforesaid four attributes. We may call Matter K'shiti, Ap etc., according to the prominence in it of one of those four qualities but we must not forget that all Matter, Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat