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The Jaina world of Non-living
The scientists have seven colours excluding white and black. The white colour indicates mixture of all colours while the black colour indicates absorption of all colours by the objects. They are VIBGYOR (violet, indigo, brown, green, yellow, orange, red). If white and black colours are also taken into account, there will be nine colours in all. Each colour is characterised by specific frequency range under the wave theory of light.
G. R. Jain has mentioned four types of colours- (i) natural (ii) pigmentary (iii) spectral and (iv) fundamental on the basis of colour being perceptible on assuming grossness as the aphrorist means that the five colours observed are natural colours. However, the rainbow and refraction process yield seven colours. It is very difficult to differentiate between spectral and fundamental colours without any amount of stretch of the basic concept. They have been taken normally as synonymous terms. The seven coloured spectrum represents a frequency range which could enable human eye to see the colours. There are frequency ranges beyond violet and red colours (ultra-violet and infra-red) which are beyond human visibility. Of course, animals like cats and others can see through this range also. Some scholars have pointed out that there are only three fundamental colours - those of the three basic quarks which have been found to be blue, yellow and red. It is also observed that when a body is heated gradually, it passes from infra-red to red, yellow, blue and white light in the end (as in electric bulbs). Thus, barring black and white, three colours are naturally, perchance, grossly observable. In any case, the five-fold colour concept of Jainas does not appear to be in tune with current science. The other colours are mixtures of these three - does not seem to be a scientific answer. The identification of frequency range suggests the fineness of the scientific observation which should be praiseworthy
On the spectral basis, the order of Pūjyapāda seems to be little better as it, atleast, starts with one end (black) of the spectrum and ends with red at its other end. In it, white should be placed in the end with no spectral position. Thus, if the commentarian order is black-blue-yellowred-white, then the first black will represent the ultra-violet range and the
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