Anandakanda 2.7

Ānandakanda 2.7
Śrī Bhairava [spoke]:
<Brass: Synonyms>
Rīti, kṣudrasuvarṇa, sitakanaka, piṅgala, pittalaka,
lohitaka, ārakūṭa, piṅgalaloha, and pītaka are the nine names.

<Brass: Subtypes>
Brass is of two kinds: rītikā and kākatuṇḍī.
<Brass: Testing>
When heated and thrown into sour gruel, that which has a copper luster is considered rītikā.

That which turns black in this manner is considered kākatuṇḍī.
<Brass: Testing: Good Quality>
Heavy, soft, yellow with a pigeon-gray sheen, dense, capable of withstanding hammering,

very unctuous, and smooth-bodied—such brass is auspicious.
Pure, unctuous, soft, cool, well-colored, ductile into wire,

gold-like, auspicious, and firm like aśvattha is declared the finest brass by class.
<Brass: Testing: Bad Quality>
Pale, yellowish, harsh, rough, brittle, unable to withstand beating,

foul-smelling, and light—such brass is not desired in mercury and related operations.
<Properties of Brass>
Brass has a bitter taste, is dry, kills parasites, and cures bleeding disorders;

the black variety cures leprosy through combination; it has a hot potency yet is cooling.
<Properties of Rājarīti>
Kākatuṇḍī that has been oleated follows the properties of rājarīti;

rājarīti is said to be equal in properties to rītikā.
<Medicinal Properties of Brass>
The pair of brass varieties is dry, bitter, salty, and laxative.

It is beautifying, cures anemia and vāta humor, and increases strength, vigor, and lifespan.
Rītikā is pungent, bitter, and hot, and destroys splenic disease and abdominal swelling;

it is dry, and when administered with sweet things it cures kapha humor and bleeding disorders.
<Synonyms of Rājarīti>
Rājarīti, kākatuṇḍī, rājaputrī, maheśvarī,

brāhmaṇī, brahmarīti, kapilā, and piṅgalā.
<Bronze>
Kāṃsya, saurāṣṭrika, ghoṣa, kaṃsīya, vahnilohaka,

dīptaloha, ghoṣayuṣya, and dīptaka are its nine names.
<Production of Bronze>
With eight parts of copper and two parts of tin (kuṭila),

melted together, bronze is produced; that which comes from Saurāṣṭra is auspicious.
<Bronze: Testing: Good Quality>
Sharp-sounding, soft, unctuous, slightly greyish-white,

spotless, and red on heating—bronze of six qualities is praised.
Bright white, of soft luster, rich in sound, unctuous, spotless,

able to withstand intense fire and hammering, ductile—such bronze is declared the best.
<Bronze: Testing: Bad Quality>
That which is yellow, copper-colored on heating, coarse, rough, unable to withstand hammering,

dull in sound, and lusterless—one should reject bronze of these seven kinds.
<Medicinal Properties of Bronze>
Except for ghee alone, anything else placed in bronze

and eaten brings health and happiness to people, and is wholesome and agreeable.
Bronze is light, bitter, hot, scarifying, and clarifies the vision;

it removes worms and clears the bowels, relieves vāta humor and pitta humor, and is wholesome for eating.
<Vartaloha>
Vartaloha, vartatīkṣṇa, vartaka, lohasaṃkara,

nīlikā, nīlaloha, lohaka, and vaṭṭalohaka—
produced from bronze, copper, brass, iron, and lead, that is vartaloha.

That very [metal] is called fivefold bronze by the metallurgists. / Everything prepared in a vessel of it, beginning with various condiments,

and devoid of sour taste, is extremely appetite-stimulating, digestive, and auspicious. / <Purification and incineration of vartaloha> / Molten and thrown into horse-urine, vartaloha is purified.

Subjected to puṭa calcination with sulfur and orpiment, vartaloha is incinerated. / It should be employed according to rule in its respective proportions.

Vartaloha is pungent, hot, bitter, and also cooling; / it subdues kapha, pacifies pitta, is sweet, and removes burning sensation and urinary disorders.

It is dry, appetizing, vermifuge, beneficial for the eyes, and cleanses impurities. / <Purification and incineration of brass and related metals> / One should levigate the three alkalis and the five salts seven times with sour liquid.

One should smear leaves of bell-metal, brass, and bronze with that paste; / having enclosed them, one should calcinate in an elephant-pit: they attain purification, not otherwise.

Having performed their incineration like copper, one should employ them everywhere. / Incinerated metals become nectar; properly administered, they destroy great diseases. / Through habituation, they bring about the perfection of a firm body, and the destruction of disease, birth, and senescence.

They incinerate gold with lead, silver with chalcopyrite, / copper with sulfur, lead with realgar, / tin with orpiment, the three kinds of iron with cinnabar in woman’s milk;

likewise, the essence of mica with sulfur, secondary metals [with calamine], and quicksilver is immediately killed by diamond.

<Essence of mica> / I shall describe the genuine essence of diamond mica; listen, O Bhairavī: / The essence of mica is twofold: hard, soft, liquefied,

and seed; they should be known as progressively superior in quality. / <Preparation of mica for extraction of essence> / Dhānyābhraka placed in calotropis latex is to be kept in the sun for the period of a day.

One should grind it smooth on a stone slab, seal it in a pair of earthen shallow dishes, / and bake it well in an elephant-pit; one should cook it again in calotropis latex.

One should perform grinding and puṭa-baking thus seven times; / likewise in lemon juice and in the juice of nicula.

This is processed mica, excellent and free of luster for the extraction of essence. / Or else, with the essences of mica-killers, whether taken separately or all together,

having ground dhānyābhraka smooth, sealing it, one should bake it in an elephant-pit. / Lac, guggulu, burnt wool, shorea resin, paṭu salt,

hare-bones, small fish, turmeric, the group of five flux-friends, / the five buffalo products, and marking-nut, in equal parts each;

one should grind for a day [a quantity of] processed, luster-free mica equal to the total of these. / With that entire mass, pills should be made, measuring a karṣa each.

One should blow fiercely in a hearth furnace with charcoal derived from khadira wood; / from three watches of blowing alone, the spotless essence falls down.

It is hard, finely granulated, and free from glass and borax. / One should do this three times with its slags to extract the essence.

<Soft essence of mica (1)> / Again, I shall proclaim another, the soft essence, O Sureśvarī: / Guggulu, borax, guñjā, shorea resin, jaggery,

small fish, barley-alkali, glass, oil-cake, elephant-foot yam, / earthworm, triphalā, leadwort, kṣīrakanda, punarnavā,

thorn-apple, lāṅgalī, mercury, balā, sulfur, / cow's milk, five salts, and twice the amount of honey for all,

six drops [of oil], small snails, bones of a hare, / pigeon droppings, the three pungents, cochineal insects, with drumstick leaves,

wheat, mustard, and chalcopyrite: one should grind [them] with goat's milk. / Ground thus, whether separately or all together, for only a single watch,

one part of this lump, two parts of processed mica, / and one part of the five buffalo products: one should stir everything together.

Pills resembling a karṣa in size should be made and slightly dried in the shade; / one should drop them successively into a hearth furnace heated with khadira charcoal.

With five by five blowpipes one should blow firmly through a bent blowpipe; / a bright soft essence will appear, destroying disease, senescence, and death.

One should perform this extraction of essence three times with its slag. / Following this procedure, lodestone, blue vitriol, chalcopyrite,

and the other hard secondary minerals, purified earthworm castings, / yield an aggregate of liquation; one extracts this separately for each.

<Soft essence of mica (2)> / Taking the essence of mica, adding an equal part of glass and borax, / one should blow it three times placed in a diamond crucible.

One should make a paste of the sour group, euphorbia leaves, and ivy gourd seeds with bark; / being heated, one should quench it therein seven times.

Its essence becomes soft, bright, destroying disease, senescence, and death. / <Soft essence of mica (3)> / Processed mica should be ten parts, purified [glass] three parts,

borax, chalcopyrite, and well-purified mercury one part, / and one part each of wool, shorea resin, and barley-alkali: one should mix them together.

It is to be ground with urine and the sour group for a day, as prescribed; / combined with the five products of a goat, the essence is extracted as before.

Having done this and extracted it, the incinerated [substance] emerges manifestly spotless and soft. / <Bīja-cooking of mica> / I shall describe the bīja-cooking of mica, which is exceedingly beneficial:

One hundred palas of processed mica; gold, silver, copper, lodestone, / mercury, the three sulfurs, chalcopyrite, iron pyrite, earthworms, bitumen,

antimony, kaṅkuṣṭha, green vitriol, and realgar, / each should be ten niṣkas; then red ochre, borax,

cochineal insects, jaggery, guñjā, honey, ghee, guggulu, / natron, barley-alkali, bedbugs, forty-five [in number],

small fish, hare-bones, buffalo horn, and āmalaka; / one should grind each separately with the five roots and the five buffalo products.

Pills are to be made of them, slightly dried in the shade; / as before, one should cause the essence to fall, which removes disease, senescence, misery, and death.

This seed essence is foremost in medicine, alchemy, and rejuvenation therapy. / <Purification of mica essence> / I shall declare the purification of the essence of mica, O Pārvatī:

Having broken that essence into particles, combining it with the five flux-friends, / placing that in a crucible with glass below and above it,

sealing it, one should blow with intense fire by means of khadira charcoal; / blowing thus successively seven times, it becomes spotless.

That essence having become spotless, one should pulverize it in an iron mortar; / one should grind it with decoction of triphalā for a watch and dry it in the sun.

One should duly carry out the cooking and incineration thus again and again; / one should perform forty incinerations in this way with the juices of bhṛṅgarāja,

five incinerations individually with the five nectars, and thrice with sugarcane juices. / Resembling the rising sun, the essence of mica grants supreme alchemical perfection.

<Procedure for red vermilion-like ash of mica essence (1)>
One should pulverize the purified mica in an iron mortar. / To one hundred niṣkas of that, one should add one niṣka of sulphur.

One should grind it for one day with aloe vera juice, / dry it in the hot sun for a three-hour watch, and then cook it in an elephant pit furnace.

One should perform one hundred incinerations in this way, adding sulphur again and again. / O Śivā, the essence of mica will acquire the pale red hue of vermilion.

<Procedure for red vermilion-like ash of mica essence (2)>
One should pulverize the thoroughly purified essence of mica in an iron mortar. / Then, to one hundred niṣkas of it, one should add half a niṣka of pyrite.

Having ground it for a day with the latex of Calotropis procera and sealed it, one should cook it in an elephant pit furnace. / In this way one should perform one hundred incinerations, adding pyrite in each incineration.

This will become vermilion-like ash of the essence, destroying disease, senescence, and death.
<Procedure for red vermilion-like ash of mica essence (3)>
Having removed the coarse grains of that essence, a wise person in an iron mortar

should grind it with an iron pestle along with a decoction of the three myrobalans. / Placed in an iron vessel, one should keep it in the fierce sun for just a three-hour watch.

Having cooked it to a hard stage in a cooking pot, one should cook it at night in an elephant pit furnace. / One should perform seven incinerations in this way with the fresh juices of bhṛṅgarāja,

likewise with the fresh juice of aloe vera, likewise with the juices of plumbago root, / likewise with the juices of indigo leaves, likewise with the juices of punarnavā,

seven with the juices of spiny amaranth, and with decoctions made from banyan aerial roots. / Thus to the very fine powder one should add a hundredth part of sulphur.

One should grind it with sour fermented gruel, and cook it in a pot in the sun and in an incineration pit. / One should do this for ten days; then, having added a hundredth part of pyrite,

and ground it with sour fermented gruel, one should cook it in a pot in the sun and in an incineration pit. / One should do this for ten days; then one should cook it with the five nectars.

One should perform five incinerations with the juices of sugarcane, five by five. / Into the mica ash resembling vermilion, one should introduce purified cinnabar.

To a twentieth part of mica, having ground it with breast milk and sealed it in a pair of crucibles, / and then placed it in a subterranean apparatus, one should perform a mild incineration.

In this way one should perform twenty incinerations, repeatedly adding cinnabar. / By this gradual method, the essence comes to resemble vermilion.

This is the general refinement process; now the specific one is declared: / with substances that cure particular diseases, it becomes a cure for those very diseases.

<Procedure for red vermilion-like ash of mica essence (4)>
One should pulverize the completely purified essence of mica in an iron mortar. / Grinding it with the juices of Sphaeranthus indicus leaves, one should cook it for a day in an elephant pit furnace.

In this way ten incinerations are to be made, likewise with the fresh juice of Vitex negundo, / likewise with decoctions of banyan aerial roots, with juices derived from the roots of Abutilon indicum,

likewise with the juices of Terminalia arjuna, and likewise with the fresh juice of Syzygium cumini bark. / In this way sixty incinerations are to be performed; then into that one should introduce

cinnabar in a twentieth part, and grind it with breast milk for a day. / Then, sealing it in a pair of crucibles, [one should give it] a mild incineration in a subterranean apparatus.

One should perform this twenty times; it will certainly come to resemble vermilion.
<Cooking in a cooking pot>
Cooking in a cooking pot is declared to be threefold: mild, medium, and hard.

The first is like an accumulation of mud, while the medium is cooked into a lump; / the third is hard cooking, which resembles sand, O beloved.

Cooking in a pot combined with mercury, or combined with cinnabar, / is to be carried out through the mild and medium stages; then, in a subterranean apparatus,

placed within it, it should be subjected to a mild incineration. Devoid of mercury and cinnabar, / hard cooking should be carried out; according to the rule, one should cook it in an elephant pit furnace.

<Procedure for immortalizing calcinated metallic ashes>
And for all incinerated metals and mica, / I will declare the supreme secret: hear the immortalization.

Taking sixteen parts of a decoction produced from the three myrobalans, / eight palas of cow's ghee, and ten palas of incinerated mica,

combining them in an iron vessel, one should cook them over a gentle fire. / When the liquid is consumed, taking it out, one should employ it in all compounds.

Indeed, even without an vehicle, mica removes senescence, death, and disease; / or one may employ it with vehicles, and it will cure those corresponding diseases.

The vermilion-like ash of hard mica essence [cures] gray hair and wrinkles, / [bestows] sharpness of the sensory faculties, and also possesses the qualities of sheet mica.

The vermilion-like ash of soft essence destroys all diseases; / it destroys wrinkles, gray hair, poverty, and death, and is an excellent rejuvenation therapy.

It pacifies the three humors, is soothing, stimulates the digestive fire, promotes digestion, and is auspicious; / and it destroys the multitude of fevers, dysentery, and diarrhea,

urinary calculi, dysuria, consumption, anemia, and halīmaka jaundice, / piles, urinary disorders, skin diseases, even those born of vāta and pitta,

intractable diseases born of kapha, and abscesses and other ulcers, / various types of acute colic, and it destroys sterility in men and women.

Along with formulations that alleviate particular ailments, it eradicates those specific ailments. / Whatever qualities are present in mercury, those qualities are also in mica essence.

<Maṇḍūra, purification>
One should blow iron dross with charcoal of Terminalia bellirica; with water from cows / one should quench it within a vessel of Terminalia bellirica wood six times, repeatedly.

This is described as maṇḍūra; one should employ it clean and fine. / One should decoct the three myrobalans in cow's urine, and slowly quench it in that decoction.

<Calcinated ash of maṇḍūra>
And the iron dross is heated well until it breaks down by itself; / one should take that which has broken down, grind it, and use that as maṇḍūra.

Whatever qualities are found in incinerated iron, those qualities are in the dross of iron; / therefore everywhere one should employ maṇḍūra for the alleviation of diseases.

Muṇḍa iron is ten times superior to slag; steel (tīkṣṇa) is measured as a hundred times [superior] to muṇḍa; / loadstone (kānta) produces a hundred thousand times more benefit than steel upon ingestion.

Maṇḍūra removes anemia, wasting, piles, malabsorption syndrome, and jaundice; / it destroys all acute colic and urinary disorders, stimulates the digestive fire, and is supremely beneficial.

Cooling, bitter, astringent, and sour, it destroys heart disease and enlargement of the spleen.
<Quantities of substances for incineration of mercury, etc.>
O goddess, one should purify two thousand palas of the lord of mercury,

or one thousand, or one hundred, or fifty, or half of that; / one must not perform operations with mercury on less than twenty-five [palas].

One should not carry out the cooking of iron in excess of thirty palas; / O goddess, one should cook the essence of mica below five palas.

One should not purify gold above five palas nor below one pala; / likewise silver and copper one should purify and incinerate, O beloved.

Like iron, the essence of mica and likewise the sheet of mica
should not be processed less than five palas nor more than twenty palas.

The liquefaction, purification, and incineration of lead and tin [is thus].
One should not carry out purification or incineration of diamond below or above a niṣka, O goddess.

One should do likewise with ruby and the other gems, O Sovereign of the gods.