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Jaina Philosophy and Religion
An atom is the ultimate unit of matter (pudgala). The object that comes into being as a result of the combination of atoms is called an aggregate (skandha).
To have the physical qualities of touch, taste, smell and colour is the nature of matter. This constitutes its corporeality (murtată). Corporeality means the state of an assemblage of all the four physical qualities, viz. touch, taste, smell and colour. For the corporeal, even the term 'rūpi ('one having rupa') is used. But here 'rupi' does not mean 'one having rupa (colour) alone'; here it means 'one having rupa (colour), etc.'. From this it becomes quite clear that the reason why all the substances except matter are called arupi (devoid of rupa) is not that they are devoid of nature (rupa' also means 'nature'). If they were really devoid of any nature whatsoever, they would be absolutely non-existent and unreal like a hare's horn. As a matter of fact, each of them has its own specific nature, but it being bereft of four physical qualities is called arūpi.
Touch is admitted to be of eight types, viz. hard, soft, heavy, light, cold, hot, unctuous and arid. Taste is of five types, viz. pungent, bitter, astringent, sour and sweet. Smell is of two types, viz. good smell and bad smell. Colour is of five types, viz. black, green, red, yellow and white. Thus, the types of all the four physical qualities are twenty in all. But each of these twenty types of physical qualities again has numerable, innumerable and infinite sub-types when viewed from their different degrees of intensity.
Physical objects having soft touch do not exhibit the same degree of softness. They have different degrees of softness. On this account, though generally speaking the soft touch is one, it is divided into numerable, innumerable and infinite types according as the degrees of intensity it exhibits. Similarly, the same logic is applicable to the hard touch and the modes of taste, etc.
Sound, light, shadow, hot radiation and darkness are the forms of
matter.
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According to the Jaina thinkers, all atoms are qualitatively the same. There are no four classes of atoms. Atoms combine to form an aggregate when they manifest the required degrees of cohesiveness and aridness. The combinatory urge in atoms is not due to external agency but to their degrees of cohesiveness and aridness. Atomic combination is of two types -one giving rise to dimension and shape and the other not. The Jaina thinkers recognise the possibility of an aggregate occupying that much space which a free atom occupies.
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