Paramāṇu
Paramāṇu · parama-aṇu, “the smallest particle”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of parama (utmost) and aṇu (minute particle): “the utmost small”, the smallest particle.
Meaning: the smallest particle of matter, and the first and least of the units of measure.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa uses the word in the measures of the temple and in the merit of building one.
The first of the measures. Teaching Brahmā the pratishṭhā of Bhagavān Vishṇu and the other devatās, Hayagrīva first tells the taking of the ground: it is purified and tested, the bhūta-bali is given up to the boundary of the prākāra, saktu is scattered in the eight directions with the ashṭākshara mantra so that the rākshasas and piśācas leave, and the ground is ploughed and cows walk over it. Then he gives the measures: eight paramāṇus make one ratharēṇu; eight ratharēṇus one trasareṇu; eight trasareṇus one vālāgra (the tip of a hair); eight vālāgras one likshā (a nit); eight likshās make the next measure, and eight of those a yavamadhya (the middle of a barley grain); eight yavas make one aṅgula; twenty-four aṅgulas one kara (hand); and twenty-eight aṅgulas one padmahasta (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 39).
The merit of a temple. Parameśvara tells Skanda the pratishṭhā of the śikhara of the temple, and its phala: the yajamāna who has built a temple and performed its pratishṭhā enjoys excellent bhogas in the divine loka for as many thousands of yugas as there are paramāṇus in the pratimā, the liṅga and the vedis (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 102).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Maitreya Maharshi, teaching Vidura the measures of kāla, begins with the paramāṇu. Of the whole class of effects beginning with earth, the subtlest part, which cannot be divided further, is the paramāṇu; it stays without having entered the state of an effect and without having joined other paramāṇus. When some paramāṇus come together, men get the false impression that there is one more thing, a whole with parts, different from that collection. As in substance there is the very small paramāṇu and the very great whole, so in kāla, the śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu, there is a smallest and a greatest: the time that pervades one paramāṇu is the smallest measure of time, and the time from the creation of the world to its pralaya the greatest. Two paramāṇus make one aṇu; three aṇus one trasareṇu, seen flying in a ray of light that enters a dark room; the time of three trasareṇus is a truṭi; a hundred truṭis a vedha; three vedhas a lava. And the whole brahmāṇḍa, fifty crore yojanas with its seven coverings, merged in Parabrahma appears like a paramāṇu (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11).
Jaḍabharata tells King Rahūgaṇa that even earth merges into the paramāṇus, its imperceptible causes, so no real principle can be named apart from the form called earth; and these paramāṇus too are only imagined by the mind through ignorance, gathering to show the single false form called earth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 12). Time, from its smallest measure, the paramāṇu, up to the life of Brahmā, a thousand kalpas, turns like a wheel: it is the cakra of Śrī Hari, which swiftly takes away the age of all beings from Brahmā to a blade of grass (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 14).
Citraketu praises Ananta: “From the smallest paramāṇu to the greatest, the mahat-tattva, you are the beginning, middle and end of all things, but you have no beginning, end or middle; as gold stays the same in the ornament, you alone are satya” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 16). Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Uddhava that the yogī who meditates with love on him, whose gross upādhi is the paramāṇus of the elements, gains the siddhi of laghimā and becomes light like the paramāṇu, the subtle portion of time (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 15); and he says: “In some time I could count the paramāṇus, but I, who create crores of brahmāṇḍas, cannot count my vibhūtis” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 16).
Related terms: Aṇu · Trasareṇu · Aṅgula · Pratishṭhā · Prāsāda
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 39, 102
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 11; Skandha 5, Chapters 12, 14; Skandha 6, Chapter 16; Skandha 11, Chapters 15–16