The positive background of Hindu sociology / by Benoy Kumár Sarkár ; with appendices by Brajendranáth Seal.

Benoy Kumar Sarkar

Date:: 1914-<21>

Credit: The positive background of Hindu sociology / by Benoy Kumár Sarkár ; with appendices by Brajendranáth Seal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$condensation (irqq), and capable of variations of velocity and configuration URqrqrsfq urfq; i Vakya-padiya, Kanda 1, Sloka 109). Nydya-Vuisesika The early Nyaya writers hold that the sound-wave (sjs^rttu) has its substrate in Akasa (ether) and not Vayu (air). Later writers (e.g., Vachaspati in the Tat- tvavindu) add that soiand itself as a phenomenon is not to be conceived as a mode of motion (parispanda), for Akasa, the substrate, is, in the Nyaya view, incapable of motion, (u uT3U qft*qv^^q raufu ut UtwIut Wii — Tattvavindu). At the same time, the propagation of sound must bo conceived on the analogy of waves in water Udyotakara in the Vartika, Vachaspati in the Tatparyyatika, and Jayanta in the Nyaya- Manjari controvert the three views current in the Mimansa school,—(1) that Nada, the physical basis of audible sound, is a specific quality of Vayu (air), (2) that sound in its physical aspect, is constituted by a series of air movements of the nature of a current (qmwnu'i and (3) that it is not air currents but air waves, series of conjunctions and disjunctions of the air particles or molecules (qrtquqqT:, ototto:), that constitute the Nada, the sound physical, to which, in the case of significant sounds, the Mimansakas assign the function of manifesting the sphota, ‘transcendental ’ or ‘intelligible’ sound (logos, the word)—(Vide Udyotakara Vartika, Adhyaya 2, Alinika 2, Sutra 14). Also Tatparyyatika, tjutu ^ sqvsrqi: qiqqnjrcu u^mrquTqsqsqHr etc., loc. cit Against these views, the early Nyaya Doctors maintain that sound is a specific quality of Akasa (ether) and not of Vayu (air). At the same time, they admit that the impact which originates the sound phenomenon , qjqqrcqqiri qrarq^squrrii ra5]q'Mn) in Akasa does so by setting up a vibration in the molecules of the object struck (e.g., a bell), and that these vibrating molecules impinge against the air molecules in contact (qiqqwwq:, qireuiruqiqre:). In other words, though Akasa is the substrate (qiraq), the efficient cause of sound is to be found in the mechanical impact (qinjsjra) of vibrating molecules of sonorous bodies against contiguous molecules of air. As to the propagation of sound, the early Nyaya- Vais'esika writers content themselves with stating that the first sound thus produced in the substrate Akasa by the impact of the vibrating unlecules (e.g., of a bell) against the contiguous molecules of air, produces a second sound in the contiguous Akasa, and the second sound, a third, and so on, in the same way as waves are generated in water, until the last sound sets up a vibration in the ear-drum (qwrsnafina). Of course, this propagation of sound-wave in Akasa (ether) is effected by means of the air-wave as its vehicle. This is the Nyaya-Vaiseshika hypothesis of an independent sound-wa\e Akasa (ether) is motionless, but the airwave would not be transmitted, if the air molecules were not inter-connected by Akasa. ! rasastapada, the Vaiseshika Doctor, for example, describes the first sound as giving off a second, the second a third and so on, expanding in Akasa, in the same way as waves are supposed to propagate themselves in the ocean ■jfq^u i ifimHifqumTU rqurnnkvutu qrRu^iHMci A nura usjt qqfu I qv*Rr ju: iujjqmrqr^ etc., Sridhara, ibid). On this hypothesis, the locus of the sound at any moment forms a circle in Akasa, and the propagation is carried on, in the air, by means of ever-expanding circles, as in the case of waves in water. But this analogy is rejected by some (e.g., Udyotkara), who hold that the first sound gives off, not one sound in a circle, but an indefinite number of sounds in all MJMI+ISWqUllct qwjrvfpt; I siq 3uqr',IISs!l I 5?^% jpurra wq^srqpi'THT i Prasastapada. q^ sraqrair u^qqr%u ^5) qr^q^rruqgjTqu uurscpqu$