Rasendracudamani 12

English (machine translation) 12

Language: English

12.1

12
Ruby, pearl, coral, emerald, topaz, diamond, sapphire,
gomedaka, and cat's eye: these are in order the gems of the nine planets.

12.2

According to friendship with the planets, ruby, topaz, coral, pearl, emerald, diamond,
sapphire, hessonite, and cat's eye
are set in order into rings for the attainment of desired success.

12.3

In mercurial operations, in rejuvenation therapy, in gifting, in wearing, and in worshipping deities,
gems endowed with good marks and of noble origin are prescribed for success.

12.4

Ruby is named *padmarāga*, and the second is *nīlagandhi*.
Cool, having the tint of a lotus, clear, unctuous, heavy, and distinct,

round-oblong, and uniform in body: such a ruby is declared superior.
That which is bluish, born of the water of the Gaṅgā, reddish with a bluish interior tint,
and superior like the previously mentioned ruby, is the *nīlagandhi* ruby.

12.6

Possessing cavities, harshness, impurities, dryness, and white spots,
flat, light, and crooked: a flawed ruby is eightfold.

12.7

The ruby is an appetiser, aphrodisiac, relieves distress from phlegm, wind, and consumption,
destroys evil spirits, vetālas, and sin, and eradicates diseases born of past karma.

12.8

Delightful, white, light, unctuous, radiant, spotless, large,
renowned, with a watery lustre, and round: a good pearl is ninefold.

12.9

Rough-surfaced, devoid of lustre, blackish, coppery, resembling salt,
half-white, misshapen, and nodular: such a pearl should be avoided.

12.10

Destroying phlegm, bile, and consumption, curing cough, dyspnoea, and sluggish digestion,
conferring nourishment, aphrodisiac, longevity-promoting, and relieving burning sensation, so is the pearl considered.

12.11

Having the colour of a ripe *bimba* fruit, round-oblong, unbent,
unctuous, free from blemishes, and thick: coral is considered sevenfold [in its virtues].

12.12

Pale, greyish, rough, blemished, hollow,
weightless, and white in colour: coral is eightfold rejected.

12.13

Curing consumption, bleeding bile disorders, and cough, appetising, digestive, light,
pacifying poisons, spirits, and the like, coral removes eye diseases.

12.14

Green in colour, heavy, unctuous, flashing with a cluster of rays, auspicious,
smooth, bright, with a well-formed body: emerald is considered to have seven virtues.

12.15

Brownish, rough, bluish, pale, black, possessing lightness,
flat, deformed, dark, and dry: such an emerald is not praised.

12.16

Curing fever, vomiting, poison, dyspnoea, sannipāta, and sluggish digestion,
and destroying piles, anaemia, and swelling, emerald increases vitality (*ojas*).

12.17

Topaz is heavy, unctuous, clear, large, even, soft,
resembling the flower of the *karṇikāra*, and smooth: an auspicious one is of eight kinds.

12.18

Lustreless, rough, dry, yellow, dark, uneven,
tawny, brown, or pale yellow topaz should be discarded.

12.19

Topaz cures poison, vomiting, kapha, vāta, and sluggish digestion;
it alleviates burning sensations and skin diseases, stimulates appetite, is light, and aids digestion.

12.20

Diamond is spoken of as threefold: male, female, and neuter.
Each preceding one is vastly superior in taste, potency, and post-digestive effect.

12.21

Having eight edges, eight faces, six angles, radiant,
possessing the colors of rain-bearing clouds, Indra's bow, and water—a male diamond is called "man".

12.22

The same, if flat and round-elongated, is a female diamond;
round, with blunt angles and edges, and somewhat heavy, is a neuter diamond.

12.23

Female, male, and neuter diamonds should be administered to females, males, and neuters respectively;
by reversing them, no fruit is given at all, except occasionally with a male diamond.

12.24

According to the division of colours beginning with white, each one is fourfold:
Brahmin, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, and Śūdra, bestowing the fruit of its own caste.

12.25

For indeed, the highest of high castes yields fruit when used for lower castes;
this rule has been declared by Bhairava in the case of all substances as well.

12.26

It bestows long life swiftly, grants excellent virtues, is aphrodisiac, calms the three bodily humours, and destroys all diseases;
it causes the binding, killing, and good qualities of mercury, stimulates digestion, and conquers death like nectar itself—such is diamond.

12.27

Flaw from another mineral, inner fracture, speck, streak, and wateriness inside—
these five flaws are considered common to all gemstones.

12.28

Defects arising from the mine or water do not adhere to gemstones;
but Bhairava, on the other hand, says that a flaw is definitely a flaw.

12.29

Steamed in a decoction of horsegram or steamed in a decoction of kodo millet
for the duration of one watch, diamond is definitely purified.

12.30

Diamond, impregnated four times with bedbug blood
and enveloped with the rolled meat of musk shrews,

12.31

one should incinerate with thirty varāha-type calcinations. After that,
having blown upon it intensely a hundred times, one should cast it into a decoction of horsegram.

12.32

Others have stated that this procedural sequence must be done a hundred times.
Ground with realgar along with lakuca juice combined with horsegram decoction,

12.33

placing the diamond in a smeared crucible and sealing it,
one should incinerate it thoroughly eight times with dried cow-dung cakes gathered from the forest.

12.34

Blown upon a hundred times and then cast into pure mercury,
the diamond is definitely killed and becomes an ash that floats on water.

12.35

Truthful Somasenānī, delighted by mercury,
has declared this killing of diamond, accompanied by witnessed proof.

12.36

Smeared with bedbug blood, dried seven times,
and placed in an iron vessel filled with kāsamarda juice,

12.37

blown upon seven times, it certainly becomes diamond ash;
this sequence has been proclaimed by the eminent sage Brahmajyotis.

12.38

Rubbed on the tuber of the nīlajyotis creeper and dried in the sun,
diamond goes to ash, just as karma does by the fire of wisdom.

12.39

Smeared with a paste made with the juice born from the fruit of madana and earthworms,
one should calcine it twenty times.

12.40

Then, having powdered that diamond mixed with a little borax,

12.41

one should firmly fuse it with a twentieth part of earthworm metallic essence.
Blown together with an equal amount of gold, it should be used in mercurial operations and the like.

12.42

Ground with three times as much mercury and made into a pill,
held in the mouth, it swiftly cures looseness of teeth.

12.43

Diamond ash measured at thirty parts, gold at sixteen parts, silver at eight parts, the finest mica at eleven parts,
pyrite indeed at a quarter part, vaikrānta at eight parts, and six parts of mercury: this mercurial preparation is proclaimed for the attainment of the six royal qualities.

12.44

Water-sapphire and Indranīla—of the two, Indranīla is the better.
Possessing a bluish lustre imbued with whiteness and light in weight, that is water-sapphire;
possessing a bluish lustre imbued with blackness and heavy, that is Indranīla.

12.45

Of uniform hue, heavy, unctuous, clear, of solid body,
soft, and with light shining from within—such is the sevenfold supreme sapphire.

12.46

Soft, faint in colour, lacking weight, having the smell of blood,
flat in appearance, and somewhat dry—such is the sevenfold water-sapphire.

12.47

Destroying cough and dyspnoea, aphrodisiac, destroying the three bodily humours, very appetising,
destroying irregular fever, piles, and sins—such is sapphire declared to be.

12.48

Because its colour is equal to cow's fat, the jewel is called gomeda.
Possessing the lustre of very clear cow's urine, clear, unctuous, symmetrical, heavy,
free of layers, smooth, and radiant—such is praised as the eightfold gomeda.

12.49

Devoid of lustre, light, dry in body, flat, having a film,
lustreless, resembling yellow glass—such a gomeda brings no auspiciousness.

12.50

Gomeda destroys kapha and pitta, ends consumption and anaemia,
stimulates appetite and digestion, is pleasing, beneficial to the skin, and awakens the intellect.

12.51

Cat's eye resembling dark and white, symmetrical, clear, heavy, distinct,
and filled with an undulating white band—such is declared auspicious.

12.52

Dark, having the lustre of water, flat, light, rough,
and containing a red band—such a cat's eye is not praised at all.

12.53

Cat's eye destroys bleeding disorders, increases wisdom, longevity, and strength,
destroys pitta-predominant diseases, stimulates digestion, and clears the bowels.

12.54

Ruby is purified with acid, and pearl likewise with jayantī; / coral with the group of alkalis, and emerald likewise by cow's milk;

12.55

topaz with fermented grain water combined with a decoction of horse gram; / diamond with water of taṇḍulīya, sapphire with indigo juice, / hessonite with yellow orpiment, and cat's eye with triphalā water.

12.56

Ground thoroughly with the juice of lakuca together with realgar, sulphur, and yellow orpiment, / the other jewels, except diamond, are indeed killed by eight calcinations.

12.57

Asafoetida, the five salts, and the triad of alkalis, / flesh-dissolving amlavetasa, and sal ammoniac;

12.58

ripe fruit of sthalakumbhī, auspicious jvālāmukhī, / dravantī, rudantī, payasyā, and leadwort;

12.59

latex of snuhī and of arka—having ground everything diligently, / having formed a ball, one should then throw inside it

12.60

the jewels, only those endowed with qualities, of good type, and auspicious. / Having wrapped that ball in birch bark, bound it diligently with cord,

12.61

wrapped it again with cloth, and placed it in a swing-apparatus / within the interior of a jar filled completely with all sour substances combined together,

12.62

one should steam it with fierce fire for three days and nights. / Taking it out from there and washing it, one should extract the jewel-born liquefaction.

12.63

Possessing a lustre equal to the jewel, light, transforming body and metals, auspicious; / it is hard to blend with the king of mercury, and does not attain oneness with it.

12.64

With the group beginning with asafoetida, it blends completely—there is no doubt. / When the Great God is well-pleased, whose liquefaction does not succeed?

12.65

Devotion to Viṣṇu is rare, fixation of mercury is rare, / and liquefaction in this world is rare for men possessing little fortune.

12.66

Dispelling the affliction of the sun and other planets, granting long life and health, granting the dawn of good fortune, charm, wealth, and energy, producing courage, / removing the ill fortune arising from contact with inauspicious shade, skirt-ends, and dust, the wearing of jewels is always declared to destroy spirits and the like.

12.67

The leader of the good, virtuous Soma, has described the whole collection of virtues of jewels; / a jewel of good quality is never something that is simply numbered.

12.68

A jewel endowed with color, mark, and lineage bestows results; / in mercury, in rejuvenation therapy, in gift-giving, and in wearing; otherwise, it is the opposite.

Linked texts (1)

Rasendracūḍāmaṇi — Somadeva (alchemist), Sanskrit