y Buddha at different times), or
else to the difference of capacity on the part of the disciples (of
Buddha). Three principal opinions may, however, be distinguished; the
opinion of those who maintain the reality of everything (Realists,
sarvastitvavadin); the opinion of those who maintain that thought only
is real (Idealists, vij/n/anavadin); and the opinion of those who
maintain that everything is void (unreal; Nihilists,
/s/unyavadin[384]).--We first controvert those who maintain that
everything, external as well as internal, is real. What is external is
either element (bhuta) or elementary (bhautika); what is internal is
either mind (/k/itta) or mental (/k/aitta). The elements are earth,
water, and so on; elemental are colour, &c. on the one hand, and the eye
and the other sense-organs on the other hand. Earth and the other three
elements arise from the aggregation of the four different kinds of
atoms; the atoms of earth being hard, those of water viscid, those of
fire hot, those of air mobile.:--The inward world consists of the five
so-called 'groups' (skandha), the group of sensation (rupaskandha), the
group of knowledge (vij/n/anaskandha), the group of feeling
(vedanaskandha), the group of verbal knowledge (samj/n/askandha), and
the group of impressions (sa/m/skaraskandha)[385]; which taken together
constitute the basis of all personal existence[386].

With reference to this doctrine we make the following remarks.--Those
two aggregates, constituting two different classes, and having two
different causes which the Bauddhas assume, viz. the aggregate of the
elements and elementary things whose cause the atoms are, and the
aggregate of the five skandhas whose cause the skandhas are, cannot, on
Bauddha principles, be established, i.e. it cannot be explained how the
aggregates are brought about. For the parts constituting the (material)
aggregates are devoid of intelligence, and the kindling (abhijvalana) of
intelligence depends on an aggregate of atoms having been brought about
previously[387]. And the Bauddhas do not admit any other permanent
intelligent being, such as either an enjoying soul or a ruling Lord,
which could effect the aggregation of the atoms. Nor can the atoms and
skandhas be assumed to enter on activity on their own account; for that
would imply their never ceasing to be active[388]. Nor can the cause of
aggregation be looked for in the so-called abode (i.e. the
alayavij/n/ana-pravaha, the train of