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Properties of Matter in Jaina Canons:
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The colour feeling is a light phenomenon. Modern science agreed to seven rainbow colours in the past, which excludes white and black colours. Now they have thought of basic colours and they are only three. Other colours are just various permutations and combinations of them. The scriptures seem to express the commonly experienced colours rather than basic colours. Now quite a good knowledge has been obtained about the experience of colour and appreciation. The scriptural fact that colours have innumberable varieties in fully substantiated by current experiments as each colour represents a specific frequency of light.
Jaina philosophy maintains that the above four qualities are always coexisting. If any one of them is clear, the others may also be there, sometimes in an indistinct form. This statement is a great progress over the Vaišeșikas who have a deferring opinion about it. The Jaina view is substantiated by current experimental findings.
Scriptures classify shapes in many ways but the total types of shapes counted seem to be ten in number in various sources. Now a days, about 232 types of shape are agreed and each has an example, This is dealt with in geometry and crystallography, which has grown enormously. Conditions have been ascertainců to obtain any specific type of shape or even a single crystal by experiment. The scriptural descriptions suggest that the shapes mentioned therein belong to natural substances. It is now also possible to change their natural shapes by various techniques. Theoretical basis of shapes has also been prepared. Modifications in Attributes
All the specific attributes described above undergo modifications. These are called modes or Paryāyas. They are not coexistent like general attributes. For example, colour will always be there in matter, but yellow or green colour is changeable. Thus, attributes are said to be permanent while their modifications are temporary. Thus, the matter will always be associated with attributes and their modifications. These modifications are called consecutive properties. Grossness, fineness, binding and dividing capacity are found in material bodies while heat, cold, light, sound, shadow, darkness are caused be energies. The material modifications are described in
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