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DIFFERENT FORMS OF MATTER
161 material'. That would imply that matter also is non-material like the rest. The fifth sutra was intended to exclude that view. But this is intended to explain the distinctive charaoteristios of forms of matter.
The particular forms of matter are mentioned in the next sutra.
शब्दबन्धसोक्ष्यस्थौल्यसंस्थानमेदतमश्छायाऽऽतपोधोतवन्तश्च ॥ २४ ॥ Sabdabandhasaukṣmyasthaulyasamsthānabheda tamaschāyā ātapodyolavantasca
(24) 24. Sound, union, fineness, grossness, shape, division, darkness, image, warm light (sunshine) and cool light (moor. light) also (are forms of matter).
Sound is of two kinds. One partakes of the nature of languages and the other is different from it. The first again is of two kinds, sounds which are expressed (indicated) by letters, and sounds which are not expressed by letters?. Languages having scripts are rich in literature. The welldeveloped languages serve as means of intercourse among civilized persons, and other languages among primitive peoples. The latter kind of sounds (i. e. sounds not having scripts) is the means of ascertainment of the nature of superior knowledge amongst creatures with two or more senses2. Both these kinds of sounds are produced by the efforts of living beings (i. e. not produced by nature, but made by man eto.).
Sounds not partaking of the nature of languages are of two kinds, contrived and natural. Natural sounds are caused by the clouds and so on. The former are of four kinds.
Tata is that produced from musical instruments covered with leather, namely the drum, the kettle-drum, the large kettle-drum, eto. Vitata is that produced on stringed instruments such as the lute, the lyre, the violin and so on. Ghana is that produced from metallic instruments, such as cymbals,
ii. e. languages with scripts and languages without scripts.
9 The languages of birds and beasts are referred to here. Superiority in, or excess of, knowledge is to be taken in accordance with increase in the senses. The two-sensed beings are endowed with greater knowledge than the one-sensed beings and so on.
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