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Chapter - 10
EARLY CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY IN JAINA CANONS
Jainas form about less than one percent of population in India. However, they have made remarkable contribution in her political and religious history, art and architecture, literature, and many scientific fields. Their literature dates 'back many pre-Christian centuries. Prajñāpanā, Jīvābhigama, Tattvārtha-sūtra, Mūlācāra, Daśavaikālika, Anuyogadvāra-sútra, Şatkhandāgama etc. are their important texts. They contain large number of conceptual and descriptive aspects of chemical contents (besides many other fields), which find little mention in historical chemical literature. Conceptual Aspects
The conceptual aspects deal with (i) the universal reals (ii) theory of atoms and aggregations (iii) theory of bonding (iv) factors and type of bonding and properties of newer formations (v) variety of atoms and (vi) motion, velocity and laws of conservation and many other related topics. In contrast, the descriptive aspects deal with gross matter and materials. (i) The Reals and their definition
Physically, the Jainas postulate six basic reals involving mattergy (pudgala) and five other non-material ones (space, time, medium of motion and rest and the living). A real is defined as an entity possessing changeability through permanence. Gold ornaments are given as examples. The permanence refers to conservation law. Every real must have some attributes: (i) existentiality (ii) individuality (iii) modifiability (iv) form (v) functionality and (iv) knowability. These include spatial characters. They do not have weight as criteria for reals. The reals of Jainas give a picture of dynamic realism in
This paper was presented at International Congress on History of Science, Zaragosa, 1993.
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