that no disintegration into atoms is necessary for change of qualities, but it is the molecules which assume new characters under the influence of heat.  Heat thus according to Nyaya directly affects the characters of the molecules and changes their qualities without effecting a change in the atoms.  Nyaya holds that the heat-corpuscles penetrate into the porous body of the object and thereby produce the change of colour.  The object as a whole is not disintegrated into atoms and then reconstituted again, for such a procedure is never experienced by observation.  This is called the doctrine of pi@tharapaka (heating of molecules).  This is one of the few points of difference between the later Nyaya and Vais’e@sika systems [Footnote ref 2].

Chemical compounds of atoms may take place between the

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[Footnote 1:  Utpala’s commentary on Brhatsamh@ita I. 7.]

[Footnote 2:  See Dr B.N.  Seal in P.C.  Ray’s Hindu Chemistry, pp. 190-191, Nyayamanjari, p 438, and Udyotakara’s Varttika.  There is very little indication in the Nyaya and Vais’e@sika sutras that they had any of those differences indicated here.  Though there are slight indications of these matters in the Vais’e@sika sutras (VII. 1), the Nyaya sutras are almost silent upon the matter.  A systematic development of the theory of creation and atomic combinations appear to have taken place after Vatsyayana.]

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atoms of the same bhuta or of many bhutas.  According to the Nyaya view there are no differences in the atoms of the same bhuta, and all differences of quality and characteristics of the compound of the same bhuta are due only to diverse collocations of those atoms.  Thus Udyotakara says (III. i. 4) that there is no difference between the atom of a barley seed and paddy seed, since these are all but atoms of earth.  Under the continued impact of heat particles the atoms take new characters.  It is heat and heat alone that can cause the transformations of colours, tastes etc. in the original bhuta atoms.  The change of these physical characters depends on the colours etc. of the constituent substances in contact, on the intensity or degree of heat and also on the species of tejas corpuscles that impinge on the atoms.  Heat breaks bodies in contact into atoms, transforms their qualities, and forms separate bodies with them.

Pras’astapada (the commentator of Vais’e@sika) holds that in the higher compounds of the same bhuta the transformation takes place (under internal heat) in the constituent atoms of the compound molecules, atoms specially determined as the compound and not in the original atoms of the bhuta entering into the composition of the compound.  Thus when milk is turned into curd, the transformation as curd takes place in the atoms determined as milk in the milk molecule, and it is not necessary that the milk molecule