Anandakanda 2.4

Ānandakanda, 2.4
Śrī Bhairava said:
<Copper>
Tāmra, mlecchamukha, śulba, tapaneṣṭa, udumbara, / tryambaka, aravinda, raviloha, ravipriya,

rakta, naipālaka, and raktadhātu are its synonyms. / Mleccha and nepālaka are the two kinds; of the two, the nepāla is best.

That arising from mines other than Nepāla is called mleccha. / Very unctuous, soft, red, enduring heavy hammer blows, heavy,

immutable, heavy, and superior: such copper is called nepāla. / Having a white, black, or reddish luster, cracking easily, hard,

and turning black again when washed: this is mlecchaka copper. / Pale, blackish-red, light, accompanied by cracking,

rough-surfaced, and flaky copper is not desired in alchemical work. / Nausea, delusion, dizziness, burning sensation, and diarrhea are indeed the severe defects of copper; / through purification, when its defects are removed, it becomes equal to ambrosia in the cooking of mercurial potency.

It causes vomiting, fainting, dizziness, madness, various diseases, skin diseases, and colic;

it causes loss of lifespan, luster, and strength, and corrupts the bodily tissues— / [that is,] copper that is neither purified nor killed; therefore, having purified it, one must kill it.

<Purification of copper>
Copper combined with alkali and sour liquids, melted, heated with red ochre, / and quenched in buffalo buttermilk and goat dung seven times

becomes freed from the five defects after seven repetitions. / Smearing thin sheets of copper with lemon and rock salt,

blowing upon them, and quenching them in sauvīraka vinegar eight times, it is purified. / Smeared with lemon juice and salt, and heated eight times,

sheets of copper are purified by grinding with nirguṇḍī juice. / Placed in the middle of an aloe vera leaf, a copper sheet

incinerated becomes free of defects and whitish. / Copper purified in this manner, devoid of all defects,

becomes a provider of rejuvenation therapy, supreme in transmuting the body and base metals. / This purification Śiva or Nandikeśvara knows.

Copper destroyed by sulfur and revived seven times / becomes freed from all defects and comparable to ambrosia.

With the milky latex of snuhī and arka, salt, and fermented rice-water, a copper sheet / is smeared, strongly heated, and repeatedly sprinkled with nirguṇḍī juice.

It is purified after twelve times through smearing, heating, and sprinkling. / One should grind chalk and salt with buttermilk and fermented sour gruel;

a copper sheet smeared with this and heated repeatedly one should quench / six times into sour buttermilk and nirguṇḍī for purification.

Heated copper sheets one should quench in juice of bitter plants, / having smeared it again and again with sour buttermilk, salt, and fermented rice-water.

Heated repeatedly, one should quench it three times; it certainly attains purification. / One should cook a copper vessel with cow's urine for one watch over a strong fire;

it is purified, there is no doubt of this. And now its killing is described.
<Calx of copper (1)>
With sulfur equal to the copper, ground indeed with sour liquid, one should smear

the sheet pierced with holes, seal it, and cook it in an incineration pit. / Taking it out, one should powder it and add one quarter part of sulfur to it.

With lemon or sour gruel, or juices of mṛgadūrvā, / grinding it again and again, sealed with sulfur, one should cook it through four incinerations.

Grinding with citron juice, one should give it one incineration; / one incineration should also be given with white sugar; it will become killed.

<Calx of copper (2)>
With juices of pāṣāṇabhedī and matsyākṣī, one should smear a paste of copper / with double the sulfur, seal it, and cook it in an elephant-pit incineration.

Adding an equal part of sulfur again, one should stir it with the juices; / cooked thus through seven incinerations, it surely becomes copper calx.

<Calx of copper (3)>
One should grind mercury three times the copper with sour lemon juice. / Having first placed a leaf of dhuttūra inside a crucible,

on top of that one should cast powdered sulfur equal to the copper; / on top of that, the ground copper, and sulfur equal to the first amount.

Having covered it with datura leaves and sealed it, one should cook it in an elephant-pit incineration. / The powder, cooled of its own accord, then certainly becomes killed.

<Calx of copper (4)>
One should wash a copper sheet with a little sulfur or sour liquid; / one should coat the moist sheet with one-fourth part of mercury relative to the copper.

Then, having smeared it again with double the sulfur relative to copper, ground with sour liquid, / well-ground amlaparṇikā should be placed below and above.

Having enclosed that mass inside an earthen vessel, one should cook it on a hearth. / By one watch of cooking the copper, it definitely turns to ash.

<Copper calx (5)> / One part quicksilver and two parts sulphur should be rubbed for one watch with aloe vera. / Between two identical copper leaves, one should enclose [it] inside an earthen pot.

One should properly [seal] the joint with clay and salt, and place ash along the sides. / One should cook it for four watches on a hearth; [and] on top of the vessel, with cow dung,

water should be added repeatedly. When self-cooled, one should powder it. / It dies, there is no doubt about this; one may employ it in all formulations.

<Copper calx (6)> / Taking worn-out copper, one should throw these into it: / tin, bell-metal, lead, wrought iron, and loadstone—the six in equal parts.

Each in a measure equal to the copper, one should blow on them all together / with a curved blowpipe until only the copper remains.

One should first pour that copper into nirguṇḍī water / seven times, and sprinkle powder of its root into the copper.

With that copper one should make an unblemished, auspicious pill. / Having smeared twice as much sulphur, and mercury one-third the weight of sulphur,

or purified [mercury] obtained from cinnabar, one should triturate it with citron juices, / or triturate thoroughly with juices of lime or wild lemon.

Having dried that for three days, one should then place it inside an earthen jar, / and having placed an earthen copper-pot face downward on top,

one should plaster it securely afterwards, and cast an earthen bowl [over it]. / With great effort one should coat it so that water does not break through.

Then placing it on a hearth and filling the lower part with water, / one should ignite a fire in a gentle, medium, and intense progression.

Taking six days, when the vessel has cooled of itself, / one should break it open and carefully take the copper killed with mercury.

Then, having powdered it in a mortar, one may employ it as desired. / <Purification of copper calx> / For the purification of varied dead copper, five parts [of it],

one part white glass, and one part white borax / should be mixed and placed in a crucible, with one part mica sheet

placed on top. Having sealed and then blown [it], it should be taken out when very cold. / The copper will indeed become flawless and will remove all diseases.

Alternatively, one should rub killed copper with a single sour substance. / Having sealed that ball inside an elephant-foot yam, one should smear it everywhere.

When dried, one should cook it in an elephant pit-kiln; it will remove all defects. / It never causes vomiting, dizziness, or purging.

<Copper calx (7)> / Smearing [the copper] with paste of sulphur rubbed in wild lemon juice, / covering the copper sheets and enclosing them inside an earthen pot,

one should cook it properly for just one watch; having extracted [the sheets] when cooled, one should powder them. / That calx, merely a valla in measure, wrapped in a betel leaf,

when consumed, having induced vomiting and then purging within two watches, / will eliminate fever accompanied by colic and tympanites in people.

It definitely expels poison and artificial poison swiftly through emesis. / Suitable food to be given here is cow's buttermilk and boiled rice.

In the case of excessive purging, excessive vomiting, and excessive stupor, / one should administer cooling counter-measures in accordance with propriety.

In excessive vomiting, one should consume very cold, roasted sugarcane stalk, / or one should cook a decoction made of bael with white sugar.

Juice of acacia bark mixed with buttermilk should be drunk in purging. / <Copper calx (8)> / With quicksilver equal to the copper, and sulphur equal to that,

with orpiment half its part, and with realgar half of that, / having made a smooth collyrium-paste resembling broken antimony,

inside the Garbha apparatus described in the chapter on apparatuses, / one should place the collyrium-paste and copper leaves alternately.

One should cook it for up to a watch; when self-cooled, one should powder it. / Properly licked in a two-valla dose with an vehicle that removes the respective ailment, this copper truly cures duodenal ulcer, abdominal disease, colic, jaundice, and fever, / abdominal lumps, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, consumption, sluggish digestion, urinary diseases, hemorrhoids, and chronic sprue; it is the destroyer of all diseases.

Copper is bitter and astringent, sweet in post-digestive effect, and hot in potency; slightly warm, it dispels pitta and kapha, and puts an end to abdominal pain, skin disease, uncooked digestive toxins, and fever. / It purges upward and downward, removes poison, dispels obesity, stimulates appetite, pacifies hemorrhoids, consumption, and anemia, is good for the eyes, and is a supreme scraping agent.