06-21-2008, 11:35 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In ancient India, the philosophical schools of Samkhya and Vaisheshika, from around the 6th â 5th century BCE, developed theories on light. According to the Samkhya school, light is one of the five fundamental "subtle" elements (tanmatra) out of which emerge the gross elements. The atomicity of these elements is not specifically mentioned and it appears that they were actually taken to be continuous.
According to the Vaisheshika school, motion is defined in terms of the movement of the physical atoms and it appears that it is taken to be non-instantaneous. Light rays are taken to be a stream of high velocity of tejas (fire) atoms. The particles of light can exhibit different characteristics depending on the speed and the arrangements of the tejas atoms. Around the first century, the Vishnu Purana refers to sunlight as "the seven rays of the sun".
Later in 499, Aryabhata, who proposed a heliocentric solar system of gravitation in his Aryabhatiya, wrote that the planets and the Moon do not have their own light but reflect the light of the Sun.[citation needed]
The Indian Buddhists, such as DignÄga in the 5th century and Dharmakirti in the 7th century, developed a type of atomism that is a philosophy about reality being composed of atomic entities that are momentary flashes of light or energy. They viewed light as being an atomic entity equivalent to energy, similar to the modern concept of photons, though they also viewed all matter as being composed of these light/energy particles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_t...n_ancient_India<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
According to the Vaisheshika school, motion is defined in terms of the movement of the physical atoms and it appears that it is taken to be non-instantaneous. Light rays are taken to be a stream of high velocity of tejas (fire) atoms. The particles of light can exhibit different characteristics depending on the speed and the arrangements of the tejas atoms. Around the first century, the Vishnu Purana refers to sunlight as "the seven rays of the sun".
Later in 499, Aryabhata, who proposed a heliocentric solar system of gravitation in his Aryabhatiya, wrote that the planets and the Moon do not have their own light but reflect the light of the Sun.[citation needed]
The Indian Buddhists, such as DignÄga in the 5th century and Dharmakirti in the 7th century, developed a type of atomism that is a philosophy about reality being composed of atomic entities that are momentary flashes of light or energy. They viewed light as being an atomic entity equivalent to energy, similar to the modern concept of photons, though they also viewed all matter as being composed of these light/energy particles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_t...n_ancient_India<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->