________________
Contents of Physics - 1 : Heat and Light : 309
is due to super-natural force as that of heat39. It has already been pointed out that excessive heat is also the cause of light as observable in red-hot iron. That is why Jaina philosophy puts both the energies under one head – Atapa. As heat is material and atomic, light should also be atomic in nature. Satkhandāgama-1440 mentions it to be a four touch entity. Nyāya school'' also postulates atomic nature of light though its atom is a large aggregate in comparison to the Jainas.
The corpuscular nature of light has been proved by some effects explained similarly today. The over-powering of low-light objects like planets under sun is one point. The interference or destruction of light is another point to the issue. The image of the object in the mirror is caused by the entry of shadow of the mattergies of the objects into the mirror converting into image by their special capability. It is the fineness of the light particles that they could enter into the hard objects like mirror. The comparison of shadow with air and moonlight with water also indicates their material nature, though the simily refers to the pleasant cooling quality only. The size of light particles is very small in comparison to air and water. Their size and mass could be calculated in a similar way as heat particles. These turn out to be smaller and, therefore, lighter than heat particles ( roughly 10-42 g. or less ). The canons include corpuscles under homologous Taijasa variforms like heat.
Many types of light is described in literature as shown below: (i) General light
a-hot-a-cold light (ii) Shadow ( form of light) Cold but dark light (iii) Fire light
Hot and shining light (iv) Moon light
Cold light
Contrary to common-sense view, the Jaina philosophers point out that sunlight or light, in general, does not help in seeing an object by the eye as there are many birds like cat
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
