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314 : Scientific Contents in Prākrta Canons
some birds to see through it and some cameras have been developed to photograph in dark only. Thus, darkness may be called as human invisible light. Some call it as 'black heat rays'. In this way, darkness is a form of light of specific nature rather than opposite of light. Jaina55 and Sikdar56. have also opined similarly contrary to Pūjyapāda. However, Nyāya schools defines it in terms of absence of illuminating light which now seems to be a crude definition. Jainase suggests that darkness has a separate existence from visible light, thus classifying light into visible and invisible forms. That is why Jainas have two types of mattergies – sunlight and darkness included in their mattergic forms – all of which are corpuscular.
Currently, it is presumed that infra-red light is present in the dark for which sensitive films have been developed. Chirilian photography has also developed on this basis which pictures the invisible volitional aura of individual confirming the aural concept of the Jainas. These infra-red rays have been fully characterised and they are used in deducing the structure of many complex chemical compounds59. We are unable to see in the dark because of incapacity of our eye-camera. Under the current scientific knowledge, the canonical definition of darkness requires reconsideration as per Jaina and Sikdar. Description of Chāyā or Shadows and Images
The word Chāyā has many meanings in Apte's dictionaryso ( shadow, image, reflected image, colour and lustre ). They seem to be extension of the main meaning given by Pūjyapāda61. He defines Chāyā as that which causes the obscurance or obstruction of the path of light. Actually it should mean its formation due to this obstruction by solid or opaque bodies. The canons seem to apply cause into effect secondarily.
The above canonical definition is followed by its two varieties :
(i) A shadow in which colour, size etc. of the object is changed. Whatever be the type or colour of the object, its
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