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| Kanada |
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It has been claimed
that Kashyapa, later
known as Kanada
(Sanskrit: कणाद;
also transliterated
as Canada as well as
other forms) was a
Hindu sage and
philosopher who
founded the
philosophical school
of Vaisheshika. He
talked of Dvyanuka (biatomic
molecule) and
tryanuka (triatomic
molecule). He
probably lived
around the 2nd
century BCE, while
other sources claim
he lived in the 6th
Century BC. It is
believed that he was
born in Prabhas
Kshetra (near
Dwaraka) in Gujarat,
India. His primary area of study was Rasavādam, considered to be a type of alchemy. He is said to have believed that all living beings are composed of five elements: water, fire, earth, air, ether. Vegetables have only water, insects have water and fire, birds have water, fire, earth and air, and Humans, the top of the creation, have ether - the sense of discrimination (time, space, mind) are one. He theorized that Gurutva was responsible for the falling of objects on the Earth. Many believe that Kanada originated the concept of atom. An interesting story states that this theory occurred to him while he was walking with food in his hand. As he nibbled at the food in his hand, throwing away the small particles, it occurred to him that he could not divide the food into further parts and thus the idea of a matter which cannot be divided further came into existence. He called that indivisible matter as ' Anu ' .i.e. atom. Adherents of the school of philosophy founded by Kanada considered the atom to be indestructible, and hence eternal. They believed atoms to be minute objects invisible to the naked eye which come into being and vanish in an instant. This Indian concept of the atom was developed independently[5] and possibly prior (depending on which dates one accepts for the life of Kanada) to the development of the idea in the Greco-Roman world. Indian theories about the atom are greatly abstract and enmeshed in philosophy as they were based on logic and not on personal experience or experimentation. Thus the Indian theories lacked an empirical base, but in the words of A.L. Basham, the veteran Australian Indologist “they were brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern physics.” According to author Dilip M. Salwi, "if Kanada’s sutras are analysed, one would find that his atomic theory was far more advanced than those forwarded later by the Greek philosophers, Leucippus and Democritus." The actual historical existence of "Kanada" as an individual is uncertain. |
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