 The Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika theory posited different kinds of atoms for each of the elements earth, water, air and fire, in contrast to the Jaina theory that there is a single homogenous matter out of which everything is composed (Gangopadhyaya 1980). Atoms were regarded as substances and bearers of different attributes. Different clusters of properties were ascribed to atoms of different kinds (Dasgupta 1987; Chatterjee 2017). In contrast to the Greek atomists, who denied that sensible properties really inhere in atoms at all, atoms of different elements are thought to have perceptible properties, such as cold for water atoms. Some theorists allow for the possibility of altering the fundamental properties of atoms by heating (Thakar 2003). For atomists in the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika systems, who held that the atoms are made of fundamentally different matter, there is a problem of explaining how properties of one kind of atom can affect an atom of a different kind, i.e. how the viscosity of water atoms is able to combine with earth atoms and to change their consistency (Gangopadhyaya 1980, 34).