Question

Name the Indian sage who first propounded the idea of an atom (amu).

Answer 1

Hint: The Indian sage who gave this atomic theory was born in Prabhas Kshetra which is near Dwarka in Gujarat. He gave this theory 2500 years before John Dalton. He is also known as the father of the atomic theory of ancient India.

Complete step by step solution:
We know that the person who is credited to develop the atomic theory is John Dalton who was an English chemist. However, the atomic theory was formulated 2500 years before Dalton which was given by an Indian sage and philosopher.
- The Indian sage who gave the atomic theory was Acharya Kanad. His real name was Kashyap.
- It is said that Acharya Kanad was born in 600 BC in Prabhas Kshetra which is near Dwarka in Gujarat.
- Kanad pursued his fascination in the world by having a concept of the smallest particle. In Sanskrit, ‘Kan’ means ‘the smallest particle’ and that is why he was named ‘Kanad’.
- He was once walking with some food in his hand and that he broke it into small pieces but then he realized that he was unable to divide the food in any further particles. At that moment he had the idea that a particle could not be divided further and he called that indivisible matter Parmanu or anu which is known in English as Atom.
- He proposed that this indivisible matter cannot be sensed through any human organ or cannot be seen through human naked eyes.

Thus, we can conclude that Acharya Kanad was the Indian sage who gave the idea of the atom.

Note: Acharya Kanad wrote a book on his research which is ‘Vaisheshik Darshan’. Acharya Kanad states that every object of the creation is made up of atoms and they, in turn, connect with each other to form molecules.