Rasendracudamani 14

English (machine translation) 14

Language: English

14.1

Rcūm, 14
Pure metal is stated to be gold, silver, copper, and iron; putrid metal is spoken of as the pair called lead and tin. / Mixed metal is spoken of as a triad: brass, bell-metal, and alloy; the verbal root regarding metal is considered luha, and it also conveys the sense of striking or colour.

14.2

Primal, innate, fire-born, mineral-born, / and produced by transmutation with mercury: gold is considered to be of five kinds.

14.3

That by which the cosmic egg was enclosed, arising indeed from the quality of passion (rajas), / is declared to be primal [gold], difficult to obtain even for the gods.

14.4

The golden chorion by which Brahmā was born enveloped, / that turned into the form of Mount Meru; that indeed is innate gold.

14.5

The yellow, intolerable splendour of Śiva that was cast forth by Agni / became gold; that is designated as fire-born gold.

14.6

This triad of gold is divine, endowed with sixteen carats. / Merely by wearing it, it makes the body free from old age and death.

14.7

That which is produced in the mines of the mountains here and there / is endowed with fourteen carats; consumed, it removes all diseases.

14.8

That which is produced by transmutation with mercury is declared to be transmutation-born. / That transmutation-born [gold] is indeed an exceedingly supreme elixir that destroys sin.

14.9

Silver, copper, brass, iron, lead, tin, mica, pyrite, tin, and mercury: / that gold which they declare to arise from silver indeed has, by colouring, fourfold virtue in quality and carat.

14.10

Rubbed, resembling saffron in colour, red-coloured on heating, slightly white and not brownish when cut, flake-free, and of great weight, / unctuous, devoid of copper, rich in a dense red lustre, and of peerless, brilliant, beautiful colour: such gold is said to be the best.

14.11

Dry, discoloured, dirty, hard, black on heating, pale on the touchstone, / coarse-bodied, light in weight, brownish, and cracking: gold in these ten ways is not commendable.

14.12

Mixed metal is produced from the combination of gold, silver, and other [metals]. / The purpose of gold is not achieved by it; therefore purification is prescribed. / Not only gold is to be purified; one must purify the other metals as well.

14.13

A gold leaf of the measure of one karṣa, enclosed in earthen shallow dishes with rock salt, / placed on burning coals and blown with bellows for the measure of half a prahara, will indeed attain full colour.

14.14

The incineration of all metals is best with ash of mercury; / with herbal roots they declare it middling; with sulphur and the like it is inferior.

14.15

The incineration of a metal with an inimical metal produces bad qualities. / Having made gold leaves that can be pierced by a thorn, one should coat them.

14.16

With ash of mercury and citrus juice, they are incinerated through ten calcination pots. / Into melted gold one should throw incinerated mercury in the same measure as the metal.

14.17

Pulverising it with cinnabar and citrus juice, / the gold acquires the hue of saffron after twelve calcination pots.

14.18

With the stem of Cordia dichotoma and the roots of Bauhinia variegata, through thirty calcination pots of the type named cock, / it becomes incapable of reverting to its metallic state, and it should be employed in all formulations.

14.19

Having made an amalgam paste with mercury, confining the gold in a shallow earthen dish / combined with a little galena, burnt with a few cow-dung cakes,

14.20

the ash becomes saffron-hued; it should be used in mercury rejuvenation therapy. / With the milky juice of Euphorbia neriifolia, asafoetida, cinnabar, realgar, red lead, and sour agents,

14.21

calcined ten times, the gold becomes dead [incinerated]. / It is highly praised in mercury, in rejuvenation therapy, and in the colouring of metals.

14.22

Unctuous, intellect-promoting, destroying natural and homicidal poisons, nourishing, foremost aphrodisiac, supreme in pacifying consumption and insanity, subduing bodily diseases, / producer of intellect, understanding, memory, and happiness, destroying all morbid humour disorders, appetising, digestive-fire stimulating, subduing old age, sweet in post-digestive effect is gold.

14.23

This ash born of gold, combined with pungent substances and clarified butter, licked in the measure of two guñjās, destroys consumption, loss of digestive fire, dyspnoea accompanied by cough, and anorexia in men; / it increases the bodily vigour and tissues, gives strength, destroys anaemia, is an aphrodisiac, dispels all poisons, removes artificial poison, and expels malignant chronic diarrhoea and the like;

14.24

it destroys all diseases without remainder, dispels fear of spirits and ghosts, / prevents future diseases, and removes fear of the three types of poison.

14.25

Except for bilva fruit, everything else is commendable here. / Consumed for ten years, one who eats and behaves according to his own wish / is not afflicted by any disease for as long as he lives; there is no doubt.

14.26

Innate, mineral-born, and artificial: silver is considered to be of three kinds. / Each preceding one is indeed superior to the following by its own virtues.

14.27

Silver originating from Mount Kailāsa and the like is innate. / Merely touched, it destroys great diseases of living beings.

14.28

That silver which is produced in the mountain peaks of the Himālayas / is called mineral-born by the experts; it is indeed a supreme elixir.

14.29

Tin placed on the wooden sandals of Lord Rāma that turned into silver, / that is declared as slipper-silver; it is artificial and removes all diseases.

14.30

Dense, unctuous, soft, clear, white upon burning and cutting, heavy,
conch-like in lustre, smooth, and free of blisters: [such] silver is auspicious.

14.31

Red, yellow, or black upon burning, dry, cracking, light,
coarse in body, and rough in body: silver [possessing these] eight faults is to be rejected.

14.32

On a shallow earthen dish, one should fashion a rim all around with ash and powder.
Placing the silver there along with an equal amount of lead,

14.33

one should blow [the fire] repeatedly until the lead is destroyed.
Clear and purified, the silver should then be employed in mercurial operations and the like.

14.34

One should prepare an amalgam paste of silver with monkey-jack juice and mercury.
Placing sulphur above and below it, and sealing it within the belly of a crucible,

14.35

one should heat it in a sand bath for one day with a strong fire.
When cooled of its own accord, that amalgam paste, ground with orpiment and sour [juice],

14.36

should be calcined twelve times; the silver becomes an ash.
Ground with pyrite powder and citron acid, and slowly calcined

14.37

for thirty times, that silver becomes completely reduced to ash.
Colouration certainly arises in all metals from an excess of calcinations, without doubt;
and when reddened, they colour [other substances], achieving both the transmutation of the body and of metals.

14.38

Silver is sweet in post-digestive taste, having an astringent and sour essence, cooling, laxative, exceedingly scraping, and appetizing;
it is unctuous, pacifies wind and phlegm, kindles the gastric fire, imparts strength, makes one’s youth firm, and is aphrodisiac.

14.39

Purified silver turned to ash, combined with equal parts of mica and copper,
mixed with an amount of trikaṭu equal to all [the rest] and accompanied by honey and clarified butter,
licked in the morning, thoroughly destroys tuberculosis, anaemia, abdominal enlargement, piles,
cough, dyspnoea, diseases of the eye, and all bilious disorders.

14.40

[Copper is of two kinds:] Mleccha and Nepalese; of the two, Nepalese is superior.
That which originates from mines other than Nepal is called Mleccha.

14.41

Having a white, black, or reddish hue, emetic, purgative, hard,
and black again when washed: this is Mleccha copper.

14.42

Very unctuous, soft, red, able to withstand heavy blows, heavy,
free from defects, and supreme in properties: [such] copper is called Nepalese.

14.43

Pale, blackish-red, light, cracking,
rough in body, and laminated: [such] copper is not desired in mercurial work.

14.44

Nausea, stupor, giddiness, burning sensation, and purging are the flaws of copper—verily hard to endure.
Freed from its own flaws through purification, it becomes like nectar in the preparation of mercurial potencies.

14.45

Copper combined with alkali and acid, melted, red ochre added,
and plunged seven times into buffalo butter-milk and cow-dung

14.46

becomes free of the five defects and fit for calcination into ash.
Copper leaves free of laminae, smeared with rock salt,

14.47

blown [in the fire] and plunged eight times into fermented sour gruel, are purified.
Smeared with lime juice and salt, and heated eight times,

14.48

the copper sheets are purified by immersion in the juice of nirguṇḍī.
One should make copper sheets resembling palm leaves;

14.49

boiling them for one yāma in fermented rice water and cleansing them with ash,
boiling them for one yāma with milk, one should keep them in it for a day.

14.50

For one day [they are placed] with salt in the pulp of tamarind fruit.
Wrapping them with salt ground in lemon juice,

14.51

and blowing [in the fire], one should plunge them once into goat urine.
One-half of the copper, smeared with ripe lime juice along with rock salt,

14.52

blown [in the fire], should be cast into butter-milk mixed with buffalo cow-dung.
That copper, combined with an equal part of gold-pyrite,

14.53

one should blow with very intense coals once. After this,
[doing it] three times without pyrite, one should then make a pellet.

14.54

Then, one should place it in a decoction of trikaṭu for three days.
Boiling it, scouring it with ash, washing it with waters, [and] smearing it with honey

14.55

and sugar mixed with honey, one should calcine it three times
with wild cow-dung cakes; the copper becomes equal to gold in virtues.

14.56

Placed inside an aloe vera leaf,
a copper leaf calcined becomes free of defect and pale.

14.57

Copper purified in this manner, devoid of all defects,
becomes fit for rejuvenation therapy, supreme in perfecting both the body and metals.

14.58

Śiva knows this purification, or Nandikeśvara,
or the glorious Somadeva who is the refuge of all people, and no one else.

14.59

Killed seven times with sulphur and extracted,
copper becomes freed from all defects and resembles ambrosia.

14.60

Having smeared copper sheets with the paste of sulphur ground in monkey-jack juice,
placing them inside a pot and sealing it,

14.61

one should cook it properly for just one yāma; removing the killed [sheets], one should crush them into powder.
That ash, in the dose of just one valla, wrapped in a betel leaf,

14.62

when consumed, causing vomiting and then purging within two yāmas,
destroys fever accompanied by colic and flatulence in humans.

14.63

It certainly expels poison and concocted poison swiftly through vomiting.
The diet to be given here is cow's butter-milk accompanied by cooked rice.

14.64

In the case of excessive purging, excessive vomiting, or excessive burning heat,
one should apply cooling treatments appropriately according to each circumstance.

14.65

In case of excessive vomiting, one should partake of roasted, cool sugarcane pieces;
or else one should have the patient drink a decoction made of bilva with sugar.

14.66

In case of purging, the juice of acacia bark should be drunk along with butter-milk.
With mercury equal to the copper, and sulphur equal to that [mercury],

14.67

with orpiment half of that, and realgar half of that [orpiment],
making a smooth black sulphide of mercury resembling powdered collyrium,

14.68

inside the belly of the garbhayantra taught in the chapter on apparatuses,
one should place the black sulphide of mercury and copper sheets alternately;
one should cook it for a yāma, and when self-cooled, crush it into powder.

14.69

Copper is bitter, astringent, sweet in digestion, hot in potency, and slightly sour; it removes pitta and kapha, and puts an end to abdominal disease, dermatosis, metabolic toxins, and fever. / It purges upwards and downwards, stimulates virility, dispels obesity, stimulates appetite, pacifies piles, phthisis, and anaemia; it is beneficial for the eyes and pre-eminently scraping.

14.70

Licked in a dose of two vallas with a vehicle appropriate to destroying the specific disease, copper cures duodenal ulcer, abdominal disease, colic, anaemia, fever, / abdominal tumour, spleen disorders, liver disease, consumption, poor digestion, urinary disorders, haemorrhoids, and chronic sprue; this [preparation] is known by the name of Somanātha.

14.71

There is nothing else equal to this copper, pleasant and free from faults; / nothing else that eliminates all faults completely, is aphrodisiac, and wholesome for healthy people.

14.72

With one pala of sulphur, and with equal parts of dust from the [following] substances: / poisonous nux-vomica, plumbago, Cassia fistula, aconite, excellent rock salt,

14.73

Gloriosa superba, realgar, the three pungents, orpiment, betel nut, and Pongamia pinnata, / having made a powder and made it extremely liquid with lemon juice,

14.74

and then casting all of that into a mortar vessel, / one should then conceal within that paste one pala of copper leaves pierced with thorns, / smeared with a quarter part of mercury.

14.75

Endowed with power by an abundance of all virtues, spoken by the venerable Somadeva, consumed in the measure of two guñjās together with long pepper and ghee, it surely destroys / abdominal tumour, spleen disease, liver disorders, constipation, abdominal disease, colic, indigestion, the multitude of diseases caused by vāta and kapha, wasting, anaemia, and feverish afflictions when ingested.

14.76

A diet wholesome and suited to the disease should be given; one should avoid sour taste. / By him who has habituated this, death has been thoroughly conquered.

14.77

Iron is stated to be of three kinds: muṇḍa, tīkṣṇa, and kānta. / Muṇḍa is said to be of three types: soft, blunt, and brittle.

14.78

That which melts quickly, produces no bubbles, is glossy, soft, and auspicious is [mṛdu]. / That which expands with difficulty when struck is considered the intermediate muṇḍa [kuṇṭha]. / That muṇḍa which breaks, and is black upon fracture, is kaḍāra.

14.79

The softest muṇḍa is supreme; it cures kapha, vāta, colic, piles, diseases of metabolic toxin, urinary anomalies, jaundice, and anaemia; / it relieves abdominal tumours, rheumatoid arthritis, and abdominal distress; it stimulates digestive fire, dispels swelling, generates blood, and cleanses the bowels.

14.80

Tīkṣṇaloha is said to be of six types: / rough, sāra, honnāla, tārāpaṭṭa, bhājara, and that named kālaloha.

14.81

That which is hard, free from dross, has the lustre of mercury at the fracture, / bends, and is brittle, is described as kharaloha.

14.82

That which has a fracture-edge that breaks under force is spoken of as sāraloha; / sāra is declared to display steel patterns and have a pale surface.

14.83

Possessing a dark-pale body, prominent steel markings like Abrus precatorius seeds, / and extremely tough in cutting, is called honnāla.

14.84

Filled with adamantine steel lines that are fine and dense, / and possessing a darkish surface, that is celebrated as bhājara.

14.85

Displaying a bluish-black luster, dense, smooth, heavy, and bright, / its edge unbroken even under the impact of iron, it is considered kālāyasa.

14.86

Beyond kharaloha, each successive one is a hundredfold better than the last.

14.87

Kharaloha is dry, very sweet in digestion, cold in potency, bitter and hot, and removes kapha, pitta, dermatosis, abdominal disease, spleen disorders, metabolic toxins, and anaemia; / it immediately destroys colic, liver disease, consumption, old age, urinary anomalies, and rheumatoid arthritis; it is digestive, an exceptional rejuvenator, strength-promoting, and eliminates piles and obesity.

14.88

Kāntaloha is said to be fourfold: romaka, bhrāmaka, / cumbaka, and drāvaka; among these, each subsequent one is superior.

14.89

Because from the lodestone when being excavated there emerge / radiant hairs, that kānta is considered romaka.

14.90

Here and there on great mountains the bhrāmaka stone is easily found; / through throwing it in its presence, iron certainly spins like a wheel.

14.91

On the Vindhya mountain, cumbaka stones kiss an iron spike; / it rapidly attracts it, just as a woman does the heart of youths.

14.92

That touching which melts iron, gold, and other metals completely, / is obtained with great difficulty on the snow-bearing mountain.

14.93

A vessel of which a drop of oil does not spread upon water; smeared with which asafoetida loses its own smell and neem paste its bitterness; / milk boiled in which rises to a peak and does not spill upon the ground—that is proclaimed as kāntaloha characterized by these marks, and none other.

14.94

Kāntaloha is pre-eminently superior as a rejuvenator, confers long life to the healthy, is unctuous, cures urinary disorders, pacifies the three humours, and eliminates colic, metabolic toxins, and piles; / it removes abdominal tumour, spleen disease, liver disease, and phthisis, cures anaemia and abdominal illness, is bitter, hot, and cold in potency; what more? By proper combination it cures all diseases.

14.95

Each successive iron possesses a hundred thousand times the virtues of the previous; / kānta is ten million times greater therein, and each variety of it likewise possesses superior virtues.

14.96

Smeared with hare's blood and thoroughly heated three times, / all iron such as muṇḍa and the rest abandons all defects.

14.97

Supplied with sea salt, heated, and quenched / in a decoction of the three myrobalans, iron certainly sheds the defect of its ore.

14.98

By means of a decoction of tamarind fruit and leaves, iron casts off defect; / or else, combined with the three fruits, boiled for a moment in cow's urine.

14.99

Filed, sprinkled with ghee, cast into a potsherd, one should cook iron, / stirring it with an iron rod until a straw thrown upon it burns.

14.100

Having ground it repeatedly, one should cook it five times in this manner; / or thereafter with the juices of emblic myrobalan leaves or with water boiled with the three myrobalans.

14.101

One should subject the iron four times to puṭa [heating]; indeed, it will become light enough to float on water.
[Killing cast iron:]
Thin leaves of cast iron, placed in a strong fire,

14.102

having been heated and cast immediately into water, one should pound inside a stone mortar
with heavy blows using a thick iron pestle.

14.103

Enclosing the thick pieces from among it between two earthen bowls,
heating, quenching thoroughly with water, one should indeed pound [them] as before.

14.104

One should subject that powder to puṭa twenty times along with jaggery and sulphur;
at each puṭa, exceptionally firm grinding must be performed.

14.105

Iron incinerated in this way one should employ in the respective diseases.
[Killing cast iron:]
Now, the aforementioned cast iron, with vasu, bhallaka, and vāsā,

14.106

subjected diligently to puṭa thirty times with the leaf-juice,
becomes a red ash, assuming the illusion of vermilion.

14.107

[Ash of iron:]
Or, having ground that dust obtained from the cast-iron leaves with triphalā-water,
adding a little cooked rice and fashioning it into a pellet,

14.108

drying it with great care, one should roast it with five puṭas;
for that ash is red-coloured, to be employed appropriately.

14.109

[Niruttha killing of iron:]
Having coated all the iron with matsyākṣī, sulphur, and vāhlīka
ground with the juice of lakuca, concealed within a paste of matsyākṣī,

14.110

blowing it very intensely with pair of bellows until the emergence of three flames,
one should then lift it out and cast it into a decoction consisting of triphalā and cow's urine.

14.111

Retrieving it from that, striking it, and taking the dead iron,
one should heat it again as before and kill all of the iron.

14.112

Having pounded it, then along with sulphur, jaggery, and triphalā
one should subject it to puṭa twenty times; it certainly becomes niruttha.

14.113

[Ash of iron:]
Iron powder with an equal amount of sulphur, triturated with kumārī-water,
heaped into a pile and kept in the shade for some time; the iron indeed dies.

14.114

[Medicinal use of dead iron:]
This non-revertible ash of iron is indeed a divine nectar, a fully perfected rasāyana; combined with trikaṭu, viḍaṅga, ghee, and honey,
taken in the dose of a niṣka, it destroys old age, death, and diseases, and bestows good sons; it was taught of old by glorious Giriśa to the father of Kālayavana for his prosperity.

14.115

For those who partake of this, hosts of diseases do not arise,
and a glorious son is born, endowed with intellect, fortitude, and strength.

14.116

[High quality of ash of kālaloha and kāntaloha:]
One should prepare this ash with kālaloha or with kāntaloha;
ash made from other iron does not possess such qualities.

14.117

[Killing of iron:]
Or that iron ground with matsyākṣī, latex, and sulphur,
subjected to puṭa twenty times, becomes a niruttha ash.

14.118

[Medicinal use of dead iron:]
That ash, in the amount of eight palas, one should cook with eight times as much cow's urine
in an iron vessel, stirring it with an iron ladle.

14.119

This iron perfected in this manner, measured at two vallas,
destroys all diseases arising from the respective doshas:

14.120

wasting, anaemia, abdominal lump, colic, and haemorrhoids,
urinary disease, obesity, weak digestive fire, liver, spleen, and jaundice,

14.121

dyspnoea, cough, skin disease, and fever accompanied by colic.

14.122

[Medicinal use of kāntaloha:]
Kāntaloha, an equal amount of mica essence, one-fourth part gold, an equal amount of copper,
vaikrānta, pyrite, silver, combined with equal parts of viḍaṅga and ginger/black pepper,
licked with Himalayan cedar oil, bestows upon men complete bodily perfection;
the diet is as stated before, and it swiftly removes the whole host of diseases.

14.123

This is that lovely kānta-rasāyana, destroying all diseases,
strengthening, aphrodisiac, producing good sons, auspicious, and pre-eminently digestive-stimulant.

14.124

[Killing of iron:]
Half a pala of filed iron, ground repeatedly with the water of young bilva fruits,
one should cook quickly; it certainly turns to ash.

14.125

Likewise, with the waters of liṅgī fruit and with the juice of āmalakī fruit,
one should kill iron as before; it becomes more efficacious.

14.126

[Medicinal use of dead iron:]
With the alkalis of punarnavā, rock salt, apāmārga, snuhī, and the bark of tamarind,
the ash of all irons, consumed in a dose of just a śāṇa,

14.127

along with a decoction of triphalā, a man should drink every month.
[Iron slag:]
For the purification of iron slag [is essential]; otherwise, gravel/calculus arises.

14.128

Vomiting caused by unpurified irons is regarded as like poison;
but iron stated by Nandin for the purpose of purification is like nectar.

14.129

[Medicinal use of iron (?):]
Kept overnight in an earthen dish of kānta, with sweet water of triphalā and neem(?),
taken in the morning in the measure of a handful every day for six months,
it destroys multi-fold diseases of pitta and kapha, skin diseases, urinary disorders,
anaemia, consumption, jaundice, haemorrhoids, and diseases born of vāta.

14.130

[Medicinal properties of unpurified iron:]
Unpurified iron, capable of reverting to metal, after showing a little virtue, will cause
undigested matter, weak digestive fire, anorexia, abdominal lump, swelling, diarrhoea, lassitude, and chest tightness.

14.131

[Subtypes of tin:]
Tin is said to be of two kinds: khuraka and miśraka;
among these, khura is superior in virtues, while miśraka is not considered beneficial.

14.132

[Physical properties of khuraka:]
White, soft, smooth, melting rapidly, heavy,
[Physical properties of miśraka:]
and soundless: such is khura tin; miśraka is greyish-white.

14.133

[Medicinal properties of tin:]
Tin is bitter, hot, dry, slightly aggravating vāta,
destroying diseases of fat and kapha, vermicidal, and destroying urinary disorders.

14.134

[Purification of khura:]
Having melted and cast it into the juice of nirguṇḍī mixed with turmeric,
khura tin is purified in three times, without doubt.

14.135

[Purification of miśraka:]
With punarnavā, aconite, and rock salt ground with sour buttermilk,
placed in a bitter gourd, the second tin is completely purified.

14.136

[Killing of tin:]
Having smeared leaves of tin with orpiment and the latex of arka,
one should give light puṭas with the alkalis of the bark of aśvattha and tamarind.

14.137

Having ground it, one should turn it into ash; that is praised in mercurial recipes and the like.
[Killing of tin (2):]
Having melted tin in an earthen pan, one should cast in a sixteenth part of mercury.

14.138

Adding very little by little, by means of a stick of bhāradvāja, / [and] grinding it, one should turn it to ash; that is celebrated in mercurial and other operations.

14.139

[Medicinal use of incinerated tin] / Lodestone equal to the ash of tin, and mica ash equal to that, / one should grind with aloe juice and also with nimba leaf juice.

14.140

Then, having added an equal part of incinerated lapis lazuli, / one should grind it thoroughly with cow's urine and bitumen water.

14.141

Then, having ground it with guggulu water for eight days, / having dried it, and then finely powdered it, one should combine it in equal parts

14.142

with roasted barbūra exudate and powder of vākucī seeds. / Then one should put it inside a casket after straining it through cloth.

14.143

One should have [the patient] drink it with the essence of turmeric ground in cow's buttermilk, / in a dose equal to four vallas—this delightful tin rejuvenator.

14.144

By this, the twenty varieties of urinary diseases are surely destroyed. / Śāli rice, green gram soup, butter produced from sesame [milk], / patola, bitter tuṇḍīra, and buttermilk are praised as beneficial diet.

14.145

[Testing purified lead] / Swiftly melting, very heavy, black and very lustrous when cut, / fetid smelling, and black on the outside: [such is] genuine lead; otherwise it is false.

14.146

[Medicinal properties of lead] / Lead is very hot, unctuous, bitter, relieves vāta, / destroys urinary diseases and faults of body fluids, stimulates digestion, and cures āmavāta.

14.147

[Purification of lead] / One should throw turmeric powder into a decoction of sinduvāra roots, / and cast molten lead three times into the juice of nirguṇḍī.

14.148

Thus lead becomes purified; it will not cause fainting, blisters, and the like. / [Bhrāṣṭra apparatus] / One should place an inclined-mouthed jar on an inclined furnace, / and, except for that mouth, cover everything with care using clay: / this is named the bhrāṣṭra apparatus, excellent for the incineration of lead.

14.149

[Incineration of lead] / Into that apparatus named the bhrāṣṭra apparatus, one should put the lead; / one should place twenty palas of lead [therein] and apply a fierce fire below.

14.150

When the lead is melted, one should throw in purified, auspicious mercury measuring a karṣa; / having stirred it, one should throw in alkali, one pala each,

14.151

having added separately the alkali of the tree called arjuna, / also of mahārājagiri, / of pomegranate, and of mayūra.

14.152

In this way, one should cook it for twenty nights with a fierce fire, / stirring it diligently with both arms and a ladle.

14.153

Its ash becomes red, possessing the colour of a pigeon; / lead, freed of defects, indeed becomes a rejuvenator.

14.154

[Incineration of lead: irreversible] / Destroyed and revived, lead succeeds in ten times; / that incinerated lead, freed of all defects, is a rejuvenator.

14.155

[Medicinal use of incinerated lead] / Thus ash produced from lead [should be taken, and] chalcopyrite ash half its amount; / one should add a quarter part each of copper ash and silver ash,

14.156

and of lodestone, mica essence, and crystal separately. / Having ground everything together, one should calcine it with triphalā water

14.157

using thirty wild cow-dung cakes, thirty times. / Having powdered that, one should combine it with equal parts of the powder of trikaṭu and vellaka.

14.158

Licked in a dose of a valla together with honey and ghee, it destroys / eighty diseases born of vāta, especially tetanus;

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all diseases of kapha without exception, and urinary disorders completely; / dyspnoea, cough, wasting, anaemia, swelling, and ague fever;

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sprue, toxic accumulation, and incurable sluggish digestion, / and all anorectal disorders, along with the suitable vehicle for each disease.

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[Brass] / Brass is of two kinds: rītikā and kākatuṇḍī. / [Testing rītikā] / Heated and plunged into fermented rice-water, what looks like copper is considered rītikā. / [Testing rājarīti] / That which becomes black in this way is considered kākatuṇḍī.

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[Good quality rītikā] / Heavy, soft, yellowish, firm in body, able to endure hammering, / very unctuous, and smooth-bodied: such rītikā is auspicious.

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[Bad quality rītikā] / Pale, harsh, dry, brittle, unable to endure hammering, / fetid smelling, and light: [such] brass is not desired in mercurial and other operations.

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[Medicinal properties of rītikā] / Brass has a bitter taste, is dry, kills parasites, relieves bleeding disorders, / cures worms and skin diseases when combined [suitably], has heating potency, and is cooling.

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[Medicinal properties of rājarīti] / Kākatuṇḍī is non-unctuous, bitter, hot, destroys kapha and pitta, / cures disorders of the liver and spleen, and is declared to have cooling potency.

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[Purification of brass] / Heated and quenched in nirguṇḍī juice mixed with powder of śyāmā, / brass surely attains purification after five times.

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[Incineration of brass] / Coated with lemon juice, realgar, and sulphur, and calcined eight times, / brass turns into ash; then it is to be applied appropriately.

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[Production of liquefaction of brass] / Fine brass powder, eaten and then excreted / by a black, rutting, and young goat,

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smeared [with that dung] and burnt in an earthen saucer, yields a beautiful liquefaction; / possessing a splendour like gold of fourteen brilliant colours,

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it is said to transform the body and base metals when used in mercurial rejuvenation therapy. / [Medicinal use of incinerated brass] / Incinerated brass, lodestone, and incinerated mica essence:

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these three in equal parts, combined with an equal amount of trikaṭu and viḍaṅga, / and mixed with seeds of palāśa, ajamodā, citraka, bhallātaka, and sesame,

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consumed in a dose of just one niṣka, kills parasites and destroys skin diseases; / it especially destroys vitiligo, stimulates digestion, promotes assimilation, and is beneficial.

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[Production of bronze] / By eight parts of copper and two parts of tin, / when melted together, bronze is produced; that originating in Saurāṣṭra is auspicious.

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[Good quality bronze] / Having a sharp sound, soft, unctuous, slightly greyish-white, / clean, and turning red upon heating: bronze is praised for these six qualities.

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[Bad quality bronze] / That which is yellow, resembles copper upon heating, harsh, dry, unable to bear a hammer, / having a dull sound, and lustreless: one should reject bronze for these seven flaws.

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[Medicinal properties of bronze] / Bronze is light, bitter, hot, scarifying, clarifying to the eyes, / cures worms and urticaria, destroys vāta and pitta, and is beneficial as a vessel.

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Except for ghee alone, anything else kept in bronze and eaten by men / yields health and happiness, and is wholesome as well as habitual.

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Heated bronze quenched in cow's urine becomes completely pure. / It is killed with sulphur and orpiment, without recovery, by five calcinations.

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Arising from bronze, copper, brass, iron, and lead, that is vartaloha; / it is indeed declared as 'five-metals' by experts in metals.

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It is cool, sour, pungent, dry, and destroys kapha and pitta; / it is appetising, beneficial to skin, destroys worms, aids the eyes, and purifies excretions.

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All cooked grain, condiments, and pulses prepared in its vessel, / even when devoid of sourness, are digestive-fire kindling, digestive, and beneficial.

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Melted vartaloha plunged into horse's urine becomes pure. / Calcined with sulphur and orpiment, vartaloha is killed.

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In each respective recipe here, it must be applied according to rule; / by genuine, purified, and duly prepared / rasas, uparasas, metals, and the like, mercury attains perfection, not otherwise.

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Gems, metals, cowries, mother-of-pearl, rocks, hooves, horns, and spines; / whatever is hard-bodied among great elixirs and the like, once reduced to ash, is indeed fit for mercury.

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For the purpose of liquefying diamonds, I declare the metallic essence born of bhūnāga; / that itself is the supreme energy of king mercury and diamond.

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One should grind washed earthworm-derived [material] with juice of bhṛṅgarāja, / lime juices, and with the fresh juice of nirguṇḍī for three days separately.

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Having ground that, combined with the group of liquefying agents, and made into pills, / one should seal it in a firm crucible and blow it intensely for two daṇḍas.

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Taking it out when self-cooled and placing it on a flat stone, / [one recovers] heavy globules the size of mustard seeds, and even dust.

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Combined with a twelfth part of copper, one should smelt them and turn them into globules; / with that, one may effect the liquefaction of diamond and other gems as desired.

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This is declared as kharasattva, an unsurpassed rejuvenation therapy; / and in one out of two or three crucibles, the metallic essence is produced with certainty.

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Taking earthworms born of soils bearing gold, silver, copper, iron, or lodestone, / amounting to four prasthas,

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washing them with turmeric water and with cold water, / one should feed them in turn to a starved peacock or a spirited rooster;

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then one should collect its excrement. / Having ground it with alkalis and acids, and dried it in the fierce sun,

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having then placed it in an earthen bowl and roasted it, one should make a black powder. / That black powder, combined with the group of liquefying agents and thoroughly ground,

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one should seal inside a furnace and blow for two ghaṭikās. / Taking out the lump from the crucible when cooled, one should pulverise it.

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Promptly washing and collecting the globules with diligence, / smelting them in the manner of gold and turning them into a globule, one should employ it.

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The foremost metallic essence born of bhūnāga taught by the venerable Somadeva, given in the measure of one pāda with two śāṇas of gold—one should make a ring with that. / An ointment of water washed with it destroys poison arising from immobile and mobile sources, eye diseases, colic, haemorrhoids, ailments born of the ear, and puerperal afflictions.

Linked texts (1)

Rasendracūḍāmaṇi — Somadeva (alchemist), Sanskrit