FLUIDITY - THE FLOW OF FORCE

An indisputable fact is that fluids cannot resist a change in shape, only in volume. Solids can resist both.

Prasastapada saw fluidity as a property of water, earth and fire, expressed by the motion of flowing just as gravity is expressed by the falling of a body. Natural fluidity was seen as the privilege of water, incidental fluidity belonged to earth and fire. Fire, because it melts both butter and gold, both of which become fluid upon melting; earth because we all have seen the easy flow of earth particles. However, water can lose this property upon solidification, i.e. as snow and hail.

The property of fluidity is also the cause of motion - a substance can and will flow only if it possesses this property.

An ancient view held that a supernatural fire - extremely subtle - imparted fluidity to water atoms!

SOURCES :

The Cultural Heritage of India
Editors - Priyadaranjan Ray & S.N. Sen
Publishers - The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

History of Science & Technology in India
Editors - G. Kuppuram & K. Kumudamami
Publishers - Sundeep Prakashan

Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Publishers - McGraw-Hill.

Masters of the Millennium - 100 Indians who shaped the century
Publishers - The Sunday Observer (special edition).

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