Origin of Atom

The earliest references to the
concept of atoms date back to ancient India in the
6th century BCE, originally proposed by a sage
Kanada (or Kana-bhuk, literally, atom-eater); a
Hindu philosopher. The Nyaya and Vaisheshika
schools developed elaborate theories of how atoms
combined into more complex objects (first in
pairs, then trios of pairs). The references to atoms
in west emerge a century later by Leucippus whose
student, Democritus, systemized his views. In
around 450 BCE, Democritus coined the term
atomos (for atoms), which meant "uncuttable".
Though both the ancient Indian and Greek
concepts of the atom were based purely on
philosophy, modern science has retained the name
coined by Democritus. Vaisheshika, or Vaises.ika,
(Sanskrit) is one of the six Hindu schools of
philosophy (orthodox Vedic systems) of India.
Historically, it has been closely associated with the
Hindu school of logic, Nyaya. Vaisesika espouses a
form of atomism and postulates that all objects in
the physical universe are reducible to a finite
number of atoms.