MOTION - THE KARMA OF PHYSICS

The Vaisesikas recognized karma (motion) as one of the inherent qualities of a substance. While the concept of motion arose in 300 BC as part of the Vaisesika credo, it was only in AD 600 that Prasastapada took the study of the subject further. He defined motion as -

• Ekadravyatva : a single motion acting upon a single object at one time.
• Ksanikatva : motion acting upon a body and being completed almost immediately (i.e. instantaneity).
• Murta-dravya-vrttiva : motion in relation or connection to physical objects.
• Agunavattva : an absence of qualities.
• Gurutva-dravatva-prayatna-samyogajatva : motion that is generated by gravity, fluidity, own effort, and conjunction.
• Svakarya-samyoga-virodhitva : opposed by simultaneous motion(s) caused by the first motion.
• Samyoga-vibhaga-nirapeksakarana : motion as an independent cause of conjunctions and disjunctions.
• Asamavayi-karanatva : motion as 'non-inherent cause'.
• Svaparasraya-samaveta-karyarambhakatva : causing conjunctions and disjunctions in themselves and other bodies or objects.
• Samana-jatiyanarambhakatva : motion that cannot cause the occurrence of like motion.
• Dravyanarambhakatva : motion that cannot cause other bodies/objects to move.
• Pratiniyatajatiyogitva-digvisista-karyavrambhakatva : can be classified according to the direction of its initial motion.

Prasastapada described curvilinear motion (gamana), rotatory motion (bhramana), vibratory motion (spandana) in addition to rectilinear motion. He differentiated between samskara (impressed motion) and the three types of samskara - vega (momentum/persistent tendency), bhavana (mental impression), and stithisthapaka (elasticity). Prasastapada believed that when a body falls due to gravity, the falling motion is due to gravity as well as samskara.

While the Vaisesikas believed that the same samskara lasts till the completion of motion, the Nyaya school followed that a series of impressed motion (i.e. one generating the next) supported the motion till cessation.

Vaisesikas believed that the motion of a body belongs only to that body (ekadravyatva), and so that one event cannot really generate another motion. Sridhara (circa AD 991) ruled that 'ekada ekasmin dravya ekameva karma vartate'. Translated, this means that at any given time there can be only one motion in a body. Since the Vaisesikas did not explore the subject further, they did not arrive at the logical Newton formula for force-acceleration : F=ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration.

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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