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JAINA PHILOSOPHY : AN INTRODUCTION
The scientist also regards sound as a product of matter. Experiments in the sphere of science have shown that 'sound does not travel in vacuum.' If sound were generated by ether as is supposed by other schools, it should be heard in the vacuous space also, for ether is present everywhere. In the opinion of the scientist, the source of sound is in the state of vibration. For example, the prongs of a tuning-fork, a bell, the strings of a piano and the air in an organ-pipe are all in a state of vibration when they are producing sound.
Sound is classified into two chief divisions : sound incorporated in languages and sound not finding place in any language. The former is further divided into two categories : articulate utterance or speech and sounds made by creatures etc. The latter, i.e., the sound which does not find place in any language, is further classified into two sub-divisions : sounds produced by human beings with the help of musical instruments and natural sounds such as the roar of the thunder, the rippling of water, and the like. Musical sound is further classified into four categories : musical sound of a stretched instrument such as a drum, musical sound of a stringed instrument such as a violin, musical sound of a metallic instrument such as a bell, and sound produced from a wind instrument such as an organpipe. The next table will show the scheme of the classification in a lucid manner :
Sound
Language
Noise
1. Speech
Musical
3. Natural
2. Inarticulate
utterance
4. Stretched
instruments
5. Stringed instruments
6. Reed 7. Wind instruments instruments
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