possesses penetrability, the vayu-atom
impact or mechanical pressure, the tejas-atom radiant heat
and light, the ap-atom viscous attraction and the earth-atom
cohesive attraction. The akasa we have seen forms the transition
link from the bhutadi to the tanmatra and from the tanmatra to
the atomic production; it therefore deserves a special notice at
this stage. Sa@mkhya distinguishes between a kara@na-akas'a and
karyakas'a. The kara@na-akas'a (non-atomic and all-pervasive)
is the formless tamas--the mass in prak@rti or bhutadi; it is
indeed all-pervasive, and is not a mere negation, a mere unoccupiedness
(_avara@nabhava_) or vacuum [Footnote ref 1]. When energy is first
associated with this tamas element it gives rise to the sound-potential;
the atomic akas'a is the result of the integration of the
original mass-units from bhutadi with this sound-potential (_s'abda
tanmatra_). Such an akas'a-atom is called the karyakas'a; it is
formed everywhere and held up in the original kara@na akas'a as
the medium for the development of vayu atoms. Being atomic
it occupies limited space.

The aha@mkara and the five tanmatras are technically called
_avis'e@sa_ or indeterminate, for further determinations or
differentiations of them for the formation of newer categories of
existence are possible. The eleven senses and the five atoms are called
_vis'e@sa,_ i.e. determinate, for they cannot further be so determined
as to form a new category of existence. It is thus that the course
of evolution which started in the prak@rti reaches its furthest limit
in the production of the senses on the one side and the atoms
on the other. Changes no doubt take place in bodies having
atomic constitution, but these changes are changes of quality due
to spatial changes in the position of the atoms or to the introduction
of new atoms and their re-arrangement. But these are
not such that a newer category of existence could be formed by
them which was substantially different from the combined atoms.

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[Footnote 1: Dr B.N. Seal in describing this akas'a says "Akas'a
corresponds in some respects to the ether of the physicists and
in others to what may be called proto-atom (protyle)." Ray's _History
of Hindu Chemistry_, p. 88.]

254

The changes that take place in the atomic constitution of things
certainly deserve to be noticed. But before we go on to this, it
will be better to enquir