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304 : Scientific Contents in Prākrta Canons
There is a basic query about what burns in the lamp to produce hot light. It is said that it is neither lamp, wick nor oil in it which burns but it is the fire which burns. Though we cannot justify this point because of the oxidation theory of combustion of fuels, still the Jaina seers could try to peep into common phenomena like this gives credit to them for their zeal for knowledge during pre-christian days33.
The above canonical description about it leads us to the following postulates therein :
(i) Heat is a form of energy.
(ii) It is corpuscular in nature. Its corpuscles are made up of innumerable atoms.
(iii) Heat heats the substances, cooks them, destroys them, absorbed by them. It also leads to changes in states of substances.
(iv) When the substances are heated, atoms of heat enter elastically into them.
(v) Light and electricity are also forms of heat. The glow of gems is also due to heat. Heat is available in the forms of electricity and light.
(vi) Heat is a characteristic of life. (vii) Fire bodied substances are of various types.
We will, now, examine these postulates with reference to current science of physics which has to say the following facts about heat pointwise34 :
(i) Heat is a form of energy.
(ii) Its nature is dual. Some of its properties are explained by assuming it as wave and some are explained by assuming it as corpuscular. The wave-length of heat is greater than red light. The particles of heat are not atomic but they consist of finer particles called electrons. They have a specific minimum energy to be called as heat.
The wave nature of heat is not specificallly described in canons but the size of these particles may lead to such a guess. The corpuscular nature of heat was held by western
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