Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/267

 VII] Evolution oj' I n.fra-atoms 25 1 ciency is made good by a refilling from the buddhi. Thus the change and wastage of each of the stadia are always made good and kept constant by a constant refilling from each higher state and finally from prakrti. The Tanmatras and the ParamaI}us 1. The other tendency, namely that of tamas, has to be helped by the liberated rajas of aharp.kara, in order to make itself pre- ponderant, and this state in which the tamas succeeds in over- coming the sattva side which was so preponderant in the buddhi, is called bkiUiidi. From this bhiitadi with the help of rajas are generated the tanmiitras, the immediately preceding causes of the gross elements. The bhiitadi thus represents only the intermediate stage through which the differentiations and regroupings of tam as reals in the mahat proceed for the generation of the tanmatras. There has been some controversy between Sarpkhya and Yoga as to whether the tanmatras are generated from the mahat or from aharp.kara. The situation becomes intelligible if we remember that evolution here does not mean coming out or emanation, but in- creasing differentiation in integration within the evolving whole. Thus the regroupings of tam as reals marks the differentiation which takes place within the mahat but through its stage as bhiitadi. Bhiitadi is absolutely homogeneous and inert, devoid of all physical and chemical characters except quantum or mass. The second stadium tanmatra represents subtle matter, vibratory, impingent, radiant, instinct with potential energy. These "poten- tials" arise from the unequal aggregation of the original mass-units in different proportions and collocations with an unequal distribu- tion of the original energy (rajas). The tanmatras possess some- thing more than quantum of mass and energy; they possess physical characters, some of them penetrability, others powers of impact or pressure, others radiant heat, others again capability of viscous and cohesive attraction 2. I n intimate relation with those physical characters they also possess the potentials of the energies represented by sound. touch, colour, taste, and smell; but, being subtle matter, they are devoid 1 I have accepted in this section and in the next many of the translations of Sanskrit terms and expressions of Dr Seal and am largely indebted to him for his illuminating exposition of this subject as given in Ray's Hindu Chemistry. The credit of explaining Sarpkhya physics in the light of the text belongs entirely to him. 2 Dr Seal's Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus.