Tanmatras (Sanskrit: तन्मात्र = tanmātra) are rudimentary, undifferentiated, subtle elements from which gross elements are produced.
Overview
The
Samkhya school of philosophy, propounded by Rishi
Kapila, holds the five
tanmatras, or principle ideas, as the essential, primordial causes of the five substantial elements of physical manifestation:
akasha (ether),
vayu (air),
agni or
taijasa (fire),
ap (water), and
prithvi (earth), in the order of their creation. These substantial elements are the five
Pancha Bhoota from whose unlimited combination comes all material forms in space and time, including living bodies. This is in accordance with the
Vedas theory of creation.
Theories of evolution
Upanishads
Adi Sankara and
Ramanuja, theological commentators on the
Upanishads, have understood the elements as meaning deities and not the elements proper. The
Upanishads hold the impossibility of the generation of anything from out of nothingness, or not-being, explain the genesis from life-force or cosmic-force, but finally aver that all creation is only an illusion or appearance. The first-created
rayi and
prana, mentioned by the philosopher
Pippalada, refer to matter and spirit.
That Brahman is the non-dual reality can only be known by the process of differentiation from the five elements, differentiation is necessary to separate Brahman from the elements that make up the perceived world. As creation means the appearance of names and forms, names and forms cannot exist before creation. Also, the difference between objects of the same class can have no reference to
sat, for nothing else exists; and to speak of difference from a thing which does not exist conveys no meaning.
Vidyaranya explains, in
Panchadasi III.27, that:
- अक्षाणां विषयस्तवीदृक्परोक्षस्तादृगुच्यते
- विषयी नाक्षविषयीः स्वत्वान्नास्य परोक्षता
- (an object which the senses can perceive can be compared,
- but an object which is beyond perception can only be imagined,
- and the object which is the subject of perception cannot be an object of the senses.)
Buddhism
The Buddhist gandharva
Pancasikha calls the ultimate truth
avyakta in the state of
purusha, and that consciousness is due to the conglomeration of the mind-body complex and the element of
cetas, the phenomena which, though mutually independent, are not the self. The renunciation of the perceived and imperceptible phenomena result in
moksha (liberation). The philosopher
Vijnanabhiksu holds that both the separation of
ahamkara and the evolution of
tanmatras take place in the
mahat. The pure
cit (intellect) is neither illusory nor an abstraction; though concrete, it is transcendent. The state in which the
tamas succeeds in overcoming the
sattva aspect preponderant in
buddhi is called
bhutadi.
Bhutadi and
rajas generate the
tanmatras, the immediately preceding causes of the gross elements.
Samkhya
Prakrti (nature, or "the ultimate basis of the empirical universe") consists of three
guṇas (aspects or qualities):
sattva (potential consciousness),
rajas (activity), and
tamas (restraint). The
guṇas change but can be in a state of
samyavastha (equilibrium), where no action results. Under the influence of
purusha (pure consciousness),
prakrti first evolves to produce
mahat (greatness, eminence) or
buddhi (definite understanding, or intelligence), then
ahamkara (ego). From
ahamkaras
sattva aspect, arises
manas (the mind), the five organs of perception and the five of action. From
ahamkaras
tamas aspect, arise the
tanmatras (five subtle elements). From the
tanmatras arise the five gross, or substantial, elements, under the influence of
tamas. The
rajas aspect here helps with evolution under the influence of both other aspects.
Purusha and prakrti are non-evolutes, they are eternal and unchanging. From the union of these two non-evolutes evolves buddhi (knowing), from buddhi evolves ahamkara (willing), from ahamkara evolves manas (feeling), jnanenriyas (five sense-capacities), karmendriyas (five action-capacities), and tanmatras (five subtle elements), from which evolve the mahābhūtas (five gross elements). The nearness of purusha disturbs prakrti, alters the equilibrium of the three gunas – sattva (illumination), rajas (stimulation and dynamism) and tamas (indifference, heaviness, and inaction) – whose combination of attributes determines the nature of all derivative principles enumerated by the Samkhya system, triggers the causal chains, and facilitates evolution. Primordial materiality does not manifest itself; it is manifested through the evolutes.
Yoga
The philosopher
Vijnanabhiksu states that the
tanmatras exist only in unspecialized forms as an indeterminate state of matter that the
Yogi alone can perceive. The five
tanmatras—
akasa associated with ether or space,
sabda associated with air,
sparsha associated with
tejas,
ap and
rasa associated with
kshiti, generate the
Paramanu in which they partly exist as
tanmatravayava or
trasarenu, which the
Vaisheshika school and
Vijnanbhiksu, in his
Yoga-vartikka, state are the
gunas, and that in the
tanmatras there exists the specific differentiation that constitutes the
tanmatras. The formation of
bhutas through
tattvantra-parinama is followed by
dharmaparinama, or evolution by change of qualities. In the production of a thing, the different
gunas do not choose different independent courses, but join together and effect the evolution of a single product. The appearance of a thing is only an explicit aspect of the selfsame thing—the atoms. Quality is a nature of substance and any change in substance is owing to changed qualities. The
lakshana-parinama aspect of the change in appearance refers to the three different moments of the same thing, according to its different characters as unmanifested, or manifested, or manifested in the past but conserved. It is in the
avastha-parinama aspect of that change that a substance is called new or old, grown, or decayed.
Vedanta
The
tanmatras evolve out of the
bhutadi which is only an intermediate state. They have some mass and the energy and physical characteristics—such as penetrability, power of impact, radiant heat, and viscous attraction—and affect the senses after assuming the form of
Paramanu, or atoms, of the
bhutas (the created ones), the process being called
tattavantraparinama, or primary evolution. In evolution, the total energy always remains the same, redistributed among causes and effects, the totality of effects exists in the totality of causes in the potential form. The collocations and regroupings of the three
gunas (attributes or properties) induce more differentiated evolutes. The regroupings constitute the changes leading to evolutions, i.e. from cause to effect, which is based on the process known as
satkaryavada, the doctrine that the effect is existent in the cause even before the causal process has started to produce the effect, which operates in accordance with the laws of conservation of matter and energy.
The suksma bhutas combine in different proportions with the radical, as its material cause, and other bhutas, as the efficient cause, to form the mahabhutas. Suksma bhutas and panus, or paramanus, (atoms) cannot exist in the phenomenal state in an uncombined form. Two atoms combine as a result of parispanda (rotary or vibratory motion) to form a dvyanuka (molecule); three of these dvyanukas combine to form a tryanuka, and so on, until heavier metals are formed. Excepting akasha, all other tanmatras have attributes of the previous ones in the succeeding ones. The tanmatras are quanta of energy.
