Rasendracudamani 10
English (machine translation) 10
- Language
- English
10.1
Rcūm, 10
[Great Elixirs]
The great elixirs are mica, lapis lazuli, vaikrānta, copper sulphate, vimala, bitumen, / blue vitriol, and pyrite; they are rasāyanas, and their metallic essences are like nectar.
10.2
[Mica: Medicinal Properties]
It is the supreme nectar, the lustre of Gaurī, destroyer of vāta, pitta, and consumption, awakening intellect, appeasing disease, aphrodisiac, foremost in promoting longevity, / strengthening, unctuous, appetising, free of kapha, appetiser, cold in potency; through various combinations, mica cures all diseases and binds the sovereign mercury.
10.3
That mica which is brought from the mine from below a royal cubit / will yield the stated fruit; that which is destitute of metallic essence is completely fruitless.
10.4
[Varieties of Mica]
Mica is regarded as Pināka, Nāga, Maṇḍūka, and Vajra; / each is of four kinds according to the distinction of colours beginning with white.
10.5
[Pināka Mica]
Pināka, when heated by fire, casts off a heap of layers; / consumed, it binds the excreta and indeed kills a man.
10.6
[Nāga Mica]
Nāga mica, placed in fire, produces a sound like a snake; / eaten, it produces the Maṇḍala type of leprosy, without a doubt.
10.7
[Maṇḍūka Mica]
Maṇḍūka mica, when blown [with fire], repeatedly leaps and falls; / it causes bladder stone, incurable except by surgical instrument.
10.8
[Vajra Mica]
Vajra mica, thoroughly heated by fire, is devoid of any defect; / it renders the body like metal and is the supreme remover of all diseases.
10.9
[Subtypes by Colour]
White, red, yellow, and black: thus it is fourfold; / the white is praised for operations on silver, the red and so on for operations on gold.
10.10
Although mica of all four kinds is declared excellent in rasāyana, / even so, that having the splendour of the black colour is crores and crores of times superior in virtues.
10.11
[Physical Properties of Mica]
Unctuous, with broad layers, able to endure fire, heavy in weight, / and whose sheets are easily separated: that mica is declared to be commended.
10.12
[Defective Varieties of Mica]
Mica that has glints like the moon and resembles dross of glass should not be fed to mercury; / if it is fed, it should not be employed in metals or in rasāyana.
10.13
Calxed mica free from moon-like glints is to be consumed in all diseases; / consumed when endowed with moon-like glints, it produces urinary disease and sluggish digestive fire.
10.14
By those devoid of proper method who have prescribed sheet mica as a rasāyana, / the poison named Kālakūṭa has been prescribed [by them] for the purpose of sustaining life.
10.15
One should use purified mica for the sake of [extracting] metallic essence and for consumption; / otherwise, producing no merit, it certainly brings about disorders.
10.16
[Purification of Mica]
Heated red-hot seven times and quenched in sour gruel, mica / certainly becomes free of blemish, or else when quenched in cow's urine,
10.17
or in a decoction of Triphalā, especially in cow's milk.
[Incineration of Mica]
Then, having made Dhānyābhraka, grinding it with the juices of Matsyākṣī,
10.18
and having made flat cakes and dried them, one should roast them in an ardhebha puṭa; / one should roast thus six times with juices of Punarnavā.
10.19
Having ground it with borax in an amount equal to a part of the mica and made flat cakes, / one should indeed roast seven times in the same way with puṭas known as ardhebha.
10.20
Likewise, with the juice of Vāsā and with the juice of Taṇḍulīya, / one should roast seven times in accordance with the previously declared method.
10.21
The mica thus prepared should be employed in all formulations.
[Incineration of Mica]
Combined with a quarter-part of borax and ground with Matsyākṣī juice,
10.22
one should confine it in a furnace; strongly blown, mica becomes in the form of a metallic essence. / Then, having made it into a cloth-sifted powder and drenched it with cow's ghee,
10.23
one should roast it seven times on a potsherd placed on an oven; / until it becomes the colour of fire, one should powder it again and again.
10.24
Or one should roast it until grass thrown upon it burns; / then, having ground it with sulphur and with a decoction of banyan aerial roots,
10.25
one should roast it twenty times in a vārāha puṭa, / and again twenty times with a decoction derived from Triphalā.
10.26
After impregnating it with triphalā, muṇḍikā, bhṛṅga, pathyā, nīlī, and sumūlaka, / it should be administered in proper dose for all diseases.
10.27
Slightly inferior to mica's metallic essence, free from defects, and rich in virtues, / it is thus prepared by baking in an incineration pit one hundred times.
10.28
It becomes exceedingly efficacious, supreme in digesting toxins and stimulating digestion; / it induces excessive hunger when consumed in a dose of half a guñjā, / destroying all diseases through formulations that alleviate those respective ailments.
10.29
Mica-killing:
Grain-processed mica, thoroughly ground with the juice of kāsamarda, / should be calcined one hundred times; it is killed, without doubt in this matter.
10.30
Mica-killing:
Likewise, with the juice of mustā and the juice of taṇḍulīya, / mica ground with śivā, āmalaka, and saubhāgya is shaped into cakes.
10.31
It should be calcined sixty times; it becomes like cinnabar in appearance. / It destroys wasting and countless other diseases, depending on the formulation and vehicle used.
10.32
Mica-killing:
In a decoction of banyan-root bark, with the juice of betel leaves, / or with vāsā and matsyākṣikī, or with matsyākṣī and kaṭhillā,
10.33
ground with the milky sap of the banyan tree and calcined, the solid [mica] / becomes solid like cinnabar in twenty rounds.
10.34
Mica calx (6):
Ground with borax and cow's milk and calcined, the solid [mica] / becomes lustreless and superior in virtues in thirty rounds.
10.35
And if micas prepared in this manner are calcined with orpiment, / they become exceedingly potent, superior even to mercury.
10.36
Mica: calx: physical properties:
Dryness, fineness, floating on water, acquisition of a red colour, / and a brilliance of diverse virtues are produced by many rounds of calcination.
10.37
Mica: metallic essence: extraction:
With the individual juices of kāsamarda, ghanadhvani, vāsā, punarnavā, / matsyākṣī, kāravellī, and haṃsapādī,
10.38
having ground it repeatedly with care, one should dry it in the heat of the sun. / Oil cake, wheat flour, small fish, and borax,
10.39
having added each in equal proportion to the mica, one must grind it thoroughly; / at each grinding, one should dry it well in the rays of the sun.
10.40
Adding the five products of a goat, the five products of a cow, and the five products of a buffalo, / one should make balls roughly the size of a tinduka fruit.
10.41
The fivefold group:
Milk, curd, clarified butter, urine, and dung are called the fivefold group. / Having blown [the fire] in a downward-distillation furnace, one must make the metallic essence fall down.
10.42
Mica: metallic essence: extraction: separating slag and metallic essence:
Collecting the slag from the furnace and crushing it, one should take the grains. / That slag one should grind with a little borax and cow dung;
10.43
forming balls and drying them, one should blow [the fire] again as before. / Collecting the slag once more and grinding it, one should extract the metallic essence.
10.44
In this very way, blowing the slag again, one should extract the metallic essence. / Purification of mica's metallic essence:
Then, having boiled those particles of metallic essence with sour gruels,
10.45
confining them within a crucible together with the purifying group of substances, / and having removed them completely melted, one should blow [the fire] again twice.
10.46
Thus the metallic essence is accomplished, suitable for use with mercury and rejuvenation therapy. / Softening mica's metallic essence:
Melted and quenched in honey, oil, fat, and clarified butter,
10.47
a hard metallic essence of iron and the like becomes soft in ten rounds. / Mica: metallic essence: formulation:
A heated ball of the metallic essence, in sour gruel mixed with blue vitriol,
10.48
having quenched it, one should instantly pound it with an iron crowbar. / Heating it thoroughly and throwing the dense, thick granules into sour gruel,
10.49
retrieving them instantly and breaking them, one should make a powder; / and that powder one should roast three times with cow's clarified butter, as before,
10.50
likewise with the juices of the myrobalan fruit, or with the juice of myrobalan leaves. / At each roasting, grinding must be done on a stone slab.
10.51
Then, with the juices of punarnavā and vāsā mixed with sour gruel, / one should calcine it ten times, and ten times with sulphur.
10.52
Thus prepared, the metallic essence of mica is superior in all virtues; / it may be employed at will in digestion and in rejuvenation therapy.
10.53
Consumed in a measure of a valla, accompanied by viḍaṅga and the three pungents, mixed with clarified butter, celestial mica / overcomes wasting, anaemia, sprue, colic, metabolic sluggishness and belly ailments, / fever, bronchial disease, urinary anomalies, anorexia, stubborn cough, / impaired digestion, and abdominal ache; through specific formulations it overcomes all diseases.
10.54
Liquefaction of mica:
Liquefactions are certainly not described in the scripture even if observed; / without the grace of Śambhu, they never succeed in any way.
10.55
Lapis lazuli: examination:
Lapis lazuli with a slight redness and a lustre mixed with dark blue, / heavy and smooth, is best; that which is otherwise is regarded as mediocre.
10.56
Lapis lazuli: medical properties:
It alleviates urinary anomalies, wasting, piles, anaemia, and phlegm-wind disorders; / lapis lazuli is an appetiser, a digestive, an aphrodisiac, and a rejuvenating agent.
10.57
Lapis lazuli: purification:
Steamed indeed with lime juice along with cow's urine and alkali, / lapis lazuli and other minerals become pure in two or three rounds.
10.58
Lapis lazuli: killing:
Lapis lazuli combined with juice of bhṛṅga and sulphur, finely powdered, / by being calcined for seven nights, becomes killed lapis lazuli.
10.59
Minerals (general): purification:
Sūryāvarta, vajrakanda, plantain, koṣātakī, śigru, / vandhyā, nīrakaṇā, mustā, nṛpaśamī, dhvāṅkṣī, kumārī, and triphalā: / by calcination with the sour juice of any one of these, minerals and the like are purified; / and being blown [with heat], they undergo sweating, moistening, and killing, and become metallic essences.
10.60
This formulation indeed purifies the impurities of all minerals without remainder. / Lapis lazuli: extraction of metallic essence:
Combined with alkalis, salts, soot, guñjā, and harītakī fruits, / these mineral stones release their metallic essence entirely.
10.61
Vaikrānta: physical properties:
Having eight edges, eight facets, six corners, smooth, heavy, / and endowed with pure or mixed colours—such is called vaikrānta.
10.62
Vaikrānta: subtypes: colour:
White, red, yellow, blue, pigeon-coloured, / dark green, black-coloured, and variegated: it is indeed eightfold.
10.63
Granting longevity, conferring strength and complexion, extremely aphrodisiac, bestowing intellect, and removing all humoral diseases, / producing kindled digestive fire, equal in quality to a diamond, powerful, vaikrānta indeed makes the body as strong as iron.
10.64
Foremost among all rasāyanas, majestic, / vaikrānta, which destroys all diseases, should be employed in place of diamond.
10.65
Steamed in a decoction of horsegram, vaikrānta is purified. / Combined with sulphur and lemon juice, it is incinerated with eight puṭas.
10.66
Ground with a formula for extracting essence and made into a pill, / placed in a crucible and blown for one ghaṭikā, vaikrānta yields its metallic essence.
10.67
Reduced to ash, vaikrānta combined with incinerated gold / to the extent of a fourth part, accompanied by long pepper, ghee, and false black pepper, and consumed in the measure of a valla, / cures consumption, wasting, anaemia, piles, asthma, cough, / severe malabsorption, and diseases beginning with chest wound, building up the body.
10.68
Ash of blue vaikrānta combined with half [that] amount of ash of mercury, / and the metallic essence of incinerated mica equal to both of them, ground thoroughly,
10.69
mixed with honey and ghee and consumed in the morning to the measure of one guñjā / in the manner of a rasāyana, one lives as long as the moon, sun, and stars.
10.70
Consumed in the measure of a barley-corn with the adjuvant appropriate to each disease, / it destroys all diseases that are difficult to overcome with other medicines,
10.71
in thrice seven days for men, just as the water of the Gaṅgā [destroys] sin. / After drinking hālāhala poison, Garuda, having drunk nectar, vomited [it] up;
10.72
and on the mountain named Maruta, with that poison mixed with nectar, / that vomit indeed congealed and became sasyaka.
10.73
Possessing the lustre of a peacock's neck and heavy in weight, it is highly praised. / Just as poison combined with a substance becomes superior in virtue to that substance, / so hālāhala combined with nectar becomes superior in virtue to nectar.
10.74
Destroying all humours and poison, removing anal colic, colic, severe acid gastritis, and constipation, and beneficial, / rasāyana, emetic and purgative, destroying artificial poison, and curing leucoderma—such is blue vitriol declared here.
10.75
Properly steamed in a swing-apparatus for three watches / with the urines of man, buffalo, goat, and cow, sasyaka is thus purified.
10.76
Combined with monkey-jack juice, sulphur, and borax, / sealed inside a crucible, it is incinerated with cock-fire puṭas.
10.77
Sealed inside a crucible with lemon juice and a little borax / and blown thoroughly, sasyaka yields its metallic essence in the form of copper.
10.78
Pure sasyaka, combined with peacock-feather and the aforesaid drugs, / through blowing with a pipe, certainly yields its metallic essence.
10.79
Taking this metallic essence combined with the metallic essence of choice earthworms, / a ring made of it, upon touching, relieves colic immediately.
10.80
It overcomes animate and inanimate poison, spirits, witches, and eye disease. / Like Rāma, the commander of the army of the moon—with such letters,
10.81
this ring is to be made, producing verified results. / 'On the northern slope of the Himālaya is the great Aśvakarṇa tree;
10.82
there colic arose, and right there it met its end.' / Water from the ring, consecrated seven times with this mantra and drunk,
10.83
is said to cure colic instantly: thus spoke Bhāluki. / Oil heated over fire with this ring, quite certainly,
10.84
when applied as an ointment, swiftly destroys colic born wherever it may be; / it brings about swift delivery for a woman, and instantly removes eye pain.
10.85
Vimala is declared to be of three kinds: the first is gold-like, the next is silver-like, / and the third is bell-metal-like vimala; it is recognised by its respective lustre.
10.86
Round, endowed with corners, unctuous, and possessing facets; / pacifying wind and bile, aphrodisiac, vimala is an excellent rasāyana.
10.87
The first is recommended in gold procedures, the second is considered a silver-maker, / and the third is for medicine; among them, each preceding one is superior in quality to the next.
10.88
Steamed in Malabar nut water, vimala becomes spotless. / With sulphur and monkey-jack fruit, it is incinerated by ten puṭas.
10.89
Ground with borax, monkey-jack juice, and ash of meṣaśṛṅga, / smeared inside a crucible, dried, and sealed,
10.90
blown with six prasthas of charcoal, vimala yields a metallic essence resembling lead; / combined with that, mercury becomes a rasāyana.
10.91
Having ground this metallic essence combined with mercury into an amalgam paste, / thrown it into molten sulphur, one should digest three times as much [sulphur],
10.92
and also five times as much realgar in a pipe-apparatus. / Silver ash in a tenth part, and an equal amount of incinerated vaikrānta:
10.93
powdering everything together and filtering it through a cloth, / placing it inside a glass flask and filling it with care,
10.94
licked with the three pungents and the three myrobalans, accompanied by vimala and consumed with ghee, it destroys miserable fevers, swelling, anaemia, urinary disorders, and anorexia, / pain of piles, malabsorption, incomparable colic, wasting diseases, jaundice, / all diseases of bile and wind—what more?—all diseases entirely through suitable combinations.
10.95
Mineral pitch is declared to be of two kinds: the rasāyana beginning with cow-urine odour, / and the other beginning with camphor odour; among them, the first is again of two kinds:
10.96
possessing metallic essence and devoid of metallic essence; of those two, the former is superior in virtue. / In summer, from the foothills of the snow-mountain heated by the intense sun,
10.97
from interiors containing gold, silver, and copper, mineral pitch exudes. / That born from a mountain containing gold is like a hibiscus flower and heavy;
10.98
slightly bitter and very sweet, that is a supreme rasāyana. / That born from a mountain containing silver is sweet, pale, and heavy.
10.99
Rock bitumen destroys bile diseases, and especially removes jaundice.
That which arises from a mountain with copper within is blue-coloured, compact, and heavy;
10.100
this rock bitumen destroys phlegm and wind, is bitter and hot, and removes wasting disease.
When cast upon fire it becomes phallus-shaped and truly smokeless,
and when dissolved in water, that indeed is pure rock bitumen.
10.101
It truly pacifies fever with jaundice and swelling, dispels urinary disease and sluggish digestion, cuts fat, soothes consumption, and uproots urinary disorders;
it destroys phantom tumours and spleen diseases, cures stomach and heart pain, dispels unprocessed humours, and destroys all skin diseases; what more—it is beneficial for the body and for metal alchemy.
10.102
Whatever properties reside in the mercurials, secondary minerals, supreme mercury, gems, and metals,
they abide in rock bitumen, desirous of conquering old age and death.
10.103
Steamed inside a steaming apparatus with alkalis, acids, and guggulu
for the duration of a ghaṭikā, rock bitumen is purified.
10.104
Calcinated with realgar, sulphur, orpiment, and citron juice
using eight cow-dung cakes, rock bitumen is indeed killed.
10.105
One should take the incinerated rock bitumen with an equal measure of lodestone and vaikrānta,
combined with triphalā, the three pungents, and ghee, equal to a valla in weight,
in jaundice, consumption, fistula, sluggish digestion, urinary diseases, and urinary disorders, in phantom tumours, spleen diseases, dropsy, various kinds of colic, and vaginal disorders.
10.106
If one takes it for six months according to the rules of rejuvenation therapy,
freed from wrinkles and grey hair, one will live happily for a hundred years.
10.107
Ground with the flux group together with acid, the mountain-born substance
is smeared inside a crucible, sealed, and blasted intensely with charcoals.
10.108
Rock bitumen will release its metallic essence, resembling iron from its own mine.
Camphor rock bitumen is pale and sandy in appearance.
10.109
It destroys dysuria, stones, urinary disease, jaundice, and anaemia.
Steamed with cardamom water and dried, it attains purity.
10.110
The wise have not prescribed its killing or the extraction of its metallic essence.
Calamine is declared to be of two kinds: frog-like and bitter-gourd-like.
10.111
The layered kind is called frog-like, and the unlayered kind is called bitter-gourd-like;
the former is excellent for extraction of metallic essence, and the second in medicines and the like.
10.112
Calamine destroys all urinary diseases and eliminates phlegm and bile;
it cures eye diseases and wasting, and colours metals and mercury.
10.113
Nāgārjuna taught that mercury and calamine,
both are the two supreme perfected minerals that transmute the body and metals.
10.114
By whomsoever mercury and calamine are both made fire-resistant,
perfection consisting of the body and of metals is undoubtedly his handmaiden.
10.115
Thoroughly heated and immersed seven times
into the juice of a citron, calamine attains spotless purity.
10.116
Heated and properly immersed in human urine, sheep urine,
buttermilk, or sour gruel, calamine is thoroughly purified.
10.117
Kept in human urine for a month, calamine will surely colour
pure copper, mercury, and silver, making them possess the lustre of pure gold.
10.118
Having ground calamine with turmeric, triphalā, resin, rock salt, soot, borax,
and marking-nut, in quarter-parts, with acid,
10.119
smeared in an egg-plant crucible, dried and sealed,
and placing a potsherd over the crucible's mouth, one should then blast it.
10.120
When the potsherd is removed, if the flame becomes blue and white,
then, grasping the crucible with a pair of tongs and inverting it downwards,
10.121
one should tap it gently on the ground so that the tubular neck is not broken;
the metallic essence falls out resembling tin; having collected it, one should employ it.
10.122
In this manner, by three or four repetitions, all the metallic essence comes out.
Alternatively, one should bury an earthen pot containing water inside a furnace.
10.123
A perforated shallow cup is placed upon its mouth, and inverted upon that mouth, one places [the crucible];
heaping charcoals on top of the crucible, one should blast it intensely.
10.124
Having collected the metallic essence fallen into the water of the pot, one should employ it.
Having placed that metallic essence together with orpiment in a potsherd,
10.125
one should roast it with an iron rod; it definitely turns to ash.
That ash, combined with an equal amount of killed lodestone,
10.126
measured at eight guñjās of powder with a decoction of triphalā,
kept in a lodestone vessel at night, with an addition of sesame oil,
10.127
when consumed, quickly and surely destroys even diabetes,
bilious wasting, jaundice, swelling, and phantom tumours,
10.128
blood tumours of women, menorrhagia, and leucorrhoea,
all vaginal diseases, irregular fevers,
dysmenorrhoea in women, cough, dyspnoea, and hiccup.
10.129
Pyrite is of two kinds: gold pyrite and silver pyrite.
Among these, the first pyrite, arising in Kānyakubja, resembles gold.
10.130
That which arises on the bank of the Tapatī resembles five-coloured gold;
it is declared to be rich in stone, called tāpya, and possessing few virtues.
10.131
The mineral pyrite destroys all diseases, is the vital breath of mercury, supremely aphrodisiac,
a combiner of two metals that are difficult to combine, superior in virtues, and foremost among all rejuvenators.
10.132
Pyrite is purified when boiled in castor oil and citron juice;
or boiled in the juice of a plantain bulb for two ghaṭikās.
10.133
Heated and thrown into a decoction of triphalā, pyrite attains purity.
Ground with citron juice and sulphur, placed inside a crucible,
10.134
Burnt in five boar-sized calcinations, pyrite indeed dies.
With castor oil, cow's ghee, and citron juice,
10.135
Placed in a potsherd, it is strongly cooked and becomes like metal.
Thus killed, it is to be employed with mercury, and also in rejuvenation therapy procedures.
10.136
Combined with a thirtieth part of lead, mixed with alkalis and acids,
And blown in an open crucible, pyrite yields its metallic essence.
10.137
Melted seven times and thrown into the juice of nirguṇḍī,
The lead mixed with the metallic essence of pyrite is certainly destroyed.
10.138
Having a lustre like a guñjā seed, quickly melting, and resembling lead,
The pure metallic essence of pyrite is supremely effective for transforming the body and metals.
10.139
Having made an amalgam paste of mercury with the metallic essence of pyrite, and having placed sulphur into it when liquefied,
Having mixed and ground it in a mortar, and having cast in melted metallic essence of mica,
10.140
Having formed a ball, one should cook it in a salt apparatus for half a day with mild fire;
When cooled by itself and completely pulverised, taken in a dose of a valla, combined with sugar candy and viḍaṅga,
10.141
Consumed with honey, it destroys old age along with disease, and even untimely death,
And also hard-to-cure diseases within seven times; even the nectar of immortality is not equal to this.
10.142
Killed pyrite ore, half of that killed mica,
Half of that lodestone, and half of that copper ash—
10.143
Having combined everything together, one should mix it with an equal amount of sulphur;
Having ground it with lime juice, one should calcinate it ten times.
10.144
Having pulverised it, one should impregnate it with [the heat of] a hundred wild cow-dung cakes
Using the juice of the three pungents and saffron twenty-one times.
10.145
Killed pyrite certainly becomes a destroyer of all diseases:
Consumption, anaemia, dermatoses, chronic diarrhoea, diseases of the anus,
10.146
Sluggish digestion, jaundice, emaciation, loss of voice, loss of appetite,
Severe fevers of various forms, indigestion ailments, and cholera;
10.147
Those respective diseases arising from wind, bile, and phlegm entirely,
When administered with appropriate vehicles suitable to each;
Among all great elixirs, pyrite alone is considered the best.
Linked texts (1)
- Rasendracūḍāmaṇi — Somadeva (alchemist), Sanskrit