Some Problems in Jaina Psychology

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: Karnatak University Dharwar

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SOME PROBLEMS IN JAINA PSYCHOLOGY
seems capable of arousing all systems of sensibility. Kinaesthetic and organic sensibilities of various types including hunger and organic pain belong to the sense of touch.40 The Jainas say that there are five types of taste: pungent (tikta), bitter (katu), acid (ūmla), sweet (madhura) and astringent (kaşāya). Some scientists have accepted salt, sweet, bitter and sour as the primary taste qualities. However, there is no complete agreement on this point. In the Western thought, at the end of the sixteenth century, there were nine basic taste qualities, like sweet, sour, sharp, pungent, harsh, fatty, bitter, insipid and salty. By the middle of
TABLE IV Henning's Taste-tetrahedron
ASALINE
SWEPT
--
-
--
--
-
-
-
-BITTER
SOUR the eighteenth century, some of them were gradually dropped, because it was found that they were merely mixtures of different taste qualities. Later, four qualities were accepted as primary. Henning's 'tastetetrahedron' presents the relation between the four primary taste qualities: saline, sweet, sour and bitter. Various other taste qualities arise out of the inter-action of the primary qualities.41 However, Henning views taste as one, and not four senses. Henning's tetrahedron is shown in Table IV.
The Jainas classified smell in only two types, as good, (sugandha) and bad (durgundha). No further distinction has been made.
40 Geldard (F.A.): The Human Senses, p. 313. 41 Ibid. p. 313.