Anandakanda 2.1
English (machine translation) 2.1
- Language
- English
2.1.1
Ānandakanda 2.1
<Procedure for purifying and calcining secondary minerals>
Śrī Bhairavī [said]:
O God of gods, who art the bliss of consciousness, granter of existence, consciousness, and bliss!
By you alone was I previously enlightened about the preparations of mercury.
2.1.2
Now, through your favor, I desire to hear, O Lord,
of secondary minerals such as sulfur, and metals beginning with gold,
2.1.3
and gems such as ruby: tell me their characteristics, varieties, names,
refinements, and properties, so that I may understand, O Lord.
2.1.4
<Secondary minerals>
Śrī Bhairava [said]:
Sulfur, orpiment, realgar, pyrite, mica, cinnabar, red ochre,
capalā, bitumen, earthworm cast, turmeric stone, and agnijāra;
2.1.5
Calamine, blue vitriol, kaṅkuṣṭha, rock red lead, borax,
kampilla, poison, green vitriol, white arsenic, mica,
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litharge, red lead, tuvarī, rasāñjana,
blue stibnite, sauvīra stibnite, srotoñjana, opium,
2.1.7
flower stibnite, conch shell, oyster shell, snails, cowrie shells,
soap-nut, ammonium chloride, Chinese salt, mouse-killer,
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sal resin, bdellium, lac, alkalis, and salts,
gorocanā, amlavetasa, glass, goat dung, and sand:
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these are known as secondary minerals in the operations on the king of mercuries.
<The twelve metals>
Gold, silver, copper, magnetic iron, essence of mica, cast iron, muṇḍa iron,
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Lead and tin, brass, bell metal, and alloy metal; / these twelve are the metals; maṇḍūra is the slag of iron.
2.1.11
<Nine gems> / Ruby, pearl, coral, emerald, yellow sapphire, diamond, and blue sapphire, / hessonite, and cat's-eye are in order the gems of the nine planets.
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<Nine secondary gems> / Sūryakānta, candrakānta, tārakānta, kāntaka, / vaikrānta, nṛpāvarta, sasyaka, and likewise vimalā,
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and turquoise—these nine are designated as secondary gems. / <Sulphur: purification of sulphur; first method> / Origin, characteristics, variety: one should then purify sulphur.
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Having poured milk with clarified butter into a pot, one should bind its mouth with a cloth. / Having placed powdered sulphur upon that [cloth], one should cover it with a shallow earthenware lid.
2.1.15
Having placed the pot within the ground, a light puṭa should be applied above. / Then, one should employ the purified sulphur, melted into the milk, in recipes.
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<Second method> / Celastrus oil, mustard oil, castor oil, or safflower oil, / ewe's milk, clarified butter, or cow's milk and fermented sour gruel—
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one should fill a pot inside with one of these until slightly short [of the brim]. / Having tied its mouth with a cloth, then [put] the sulphur powder on top.
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Having covered it with an iron vessel, and having placed an earthen saucer with fire / full of dried cow-dung cakes upon it, melting it in this way, one should extract it.
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Having ground that with dhuttūra juice, dried it, and melted it as before, / this should be done once again; the sulphur will become thoroughly purified.
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<Third method> / Sulphur is to be ground for one watch with bṛhatī and ajagandhā, / or with the juices of bhṛṅgī, dhuttūra, and tilaparṇī.
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Taking it, one should cook it for a moment with equal clarified butter in an iron vessel. / Melted by applying fire, one should surely drop it into goat's milk.
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One should do this seven times; sulphur attains purification. / <Fourth method> / Having put karañja oil, castor oil, and goat's milk into a pot,
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and tied its mouth with a clean cloth, the wise person / should steep the sulphur for a day with dhūrtaja juices and dry it.
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One should place that powder on top of the cloth of the aforementioned pot. / Having covered it with a shallow earthenware lid, a light puṭa should be applied above.
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Taking the melted sulphur, it should be steeped with dhuttūra juices, / melted in the same manner, steeped again, and melted once more thereafter.
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Taking it, it should be steeped seven times in the sun with fish bile. / Then, one should grind it together with the seed powder of kośātakī.
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One should steep it with bhṛṅga juices for a week in the intense sun, / wash it with water, dry it, and then melt it for a moment over a gentle fire
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in an iron vessel smeared with clarified butter, and then pour it out. / Submerged in bhṛṅgarāja juice, it becomes completely purified.
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<Fifth method> / Sulphur should be ground for merely one watch with brāhmī and ajagandhā, / or with bhṛṅga and dhuttūra, or with the juice of tilaparṇī.
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Taking it together with clarified butter, one should cook it for a moment in an iron vessel. / Melted by a light fire, one should drop it into ewe's milk.
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Done in this manner seven times, the sulphur becomes pure. / <Sulphur oil; first method> / Devadālī, amlaparṇī, orange, or pomegranate,
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or citron: one should take the juice of whichever is obtained. / A fourth part of borax relative to the sulphur, combined with the juice,
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is dried in the sun for three days; juice should be added again and again. / Dhuttūra, tulasī, kṛṣṇalaśuna, devadālikā,
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śigru root, kākamācī, camphor, both śaṃkhinīs, / black aloe wood, musk, and sterile kārkoṭakī in equal parts,
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ground with citron juice, should be added to castor oil. / With this, one should steep the aforementioned sulphur kept in an iron vessel.
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Three times [done], it becomes honey-like, free of odor. / This is sulphur oil; one should employ it in all recipes.
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<Second method> / Alternatively, a cloth should be coated seven times with the milks of arka and snuhī. / Having ground sulphur with butter, one should coat that cloth.
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Ignited and held with tongs, one should hold that wick facing downwards. / Oil falls down into a vessel; it should be gathered and used in recipes.
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<Extraction of sulphur essence; first method> / Sulphur, ground for a long time with kuberākṣī oil, / strongly blown with bellows in an open crucible, releases its essence.
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<Second method> / Or, having placed the previously purified sulphur inside a pot, / and covered it with a copper vessel, one should pour cold water into that [copper vessel].
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Having lit a gentle fire beneath it, one should remove the hot water. / In this way, one should pour cold water above again and again.
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By means of fire, the gold-like essence of sulphur that accomplishes all tasks [is obtained]. / But one should not extract its essence, for sulphur is itself essence in nature:
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thus some other knowers of the true nature of sulphur declare. / <Liquefaction of sulphur> / Or, sulphur thoroughly powdered, combined with pungent oil,
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is placed in a cloth, and that cloth is made into a firm wick; / then wrapped with thread and thoroughly soaked with cow's clarified butter,
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held with tongs, the wick should be lit from below. / A liquid will be formed having the color of juice produced from a ripe mango fruit.
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<Properties of sulphur> / Sulphur is pungent in post-digestive effect, hot in potency, pure, and laxative. / It cures erysipelas, skin diseases, itching, parasitic worms, abdominal lumps, and consumption.
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It soothes eye diseases, is aphrodisiac, conquers pains caused by poisons and illnesses, / bestows all alchemical perfections, gives strength, destroys the three humors, and is a rejuvenation therapy.
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<Orpiment> / Haritāla, godantī, tālaka, naṭamaṇḍana, / girijālalita, pīta, atigandha, and biḍālaka [are its synonyms].
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<Varieties of orpiment> / Haritāla is declared to be of two kinds: that called patra, and that named piṇḍa. / <Patratālaka: physical properties> / Gold-colored, heavy, unctuous, with thin sheets, and lustrous,
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that is called patratālaka, having many layers, a rejuvenation therapy. / <Piṇḍatālaka: physical properties> / Devoid of layers, ball-like, possessing little essence, and heavy.
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It eliminates female menses, is inferior in virtues, and is called piṇḍatālaka.
[Flaws from consuming unpurified orpiment:]
It causes vāta humor, phlegm humor, urinary disorders, and the like, and destroys lifespan,
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and brings about fever, eruptions, and contraction of limbs—such is unpurified orpiment.
[Purification of orpiment; first method:]
Having broken orpiment into small grains, one should wash it with borax [amounting to] a tenth part,
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with juice extracted from jambīra citron, and should wash it again with fermented rice-water.
Having tied it in a fourfold cloth, one should cook it for a day in a dolāyantra
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with fermented gruel mixed with lime, or steam it for a day with juice of ash gourd
or with water of the silk-cotton tree; [then] orpiment attains purity.
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[Second method:]
When a decoction made from the roots of the palāśa tree has thickened to resemble honey,
orpiment is to be macerated three times, and having ground it in female buffalo's urine,
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one should repeatedly give it a calcination with ten cow-dung cakes.
Cooked in this manner twelve times, the purified [orpiment] should be employed in formulations.
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[Third method:]
Having tied orpiment into a bundle, one should cook it in fermented rice-water mixed with lime
by means of a dolāyantra for one watch; then in juice of ash gourd,
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one should cook it for one watch in sesame oil, and for one watch in triphalā water.
Cooked thus in the apparatus for four watches, orpiment is purified.
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[Extraction of orpiment essence; first method:]
Lac, black mustard, sesame seeds, moringa, borax, salt, and jaggery,
having triturated [these] with an equal quantity of orpiment, one should seal a perforated crucible.
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One should calcinate it with a pātālayantra; the essence falls out without fail.
[Second method:]
One should triturate orpiment with milk, or with decoctions of sarpākṣī.
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Sealed in a perforated crucible, one should produce the essence just as before.
[Third method:]
Lac, black mustard, jaggery, moringa, borax, salt, and sesame seeds—
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one should triturate orpiment suitable for essence [extraction] with an equal quantity of these using milk of the sun-plant,
or for a day with milk of the pencil-cactus, or with juices of ash gourd.
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Having smeared the inside with that paste, one should seal a perforated crucible;
from calcination or blowing, the essence is to be taken in a pātālayantra.
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[Fourth method:]
Quicksilver and borax are to be added in an eighth part of the orpiment;
one should triturate for three days with juice of ash gourd and latex of the milk-hedge tree.
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Having placed that ball into a perforated crucible, the essence is to be taken as before.
[Fifth method:]
Sixteen parts of orpiment, [and] poison, mercury, and borax,
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and the powder of white mica and tin: one should mix an equal part of each;
one should triturate for two days with an equal amount of latex of the milk-hedge and sun-plant.
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Having thrown that ball inside a glass flask, one should coat that glass flask
firmly all around to the measure of an inch with cloth and clay.
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When dried, one should cook it slowly over a gentle fire in a sand-bath apparatus;
then, when the moisture has dried up, having properly sealed the opening with clay and salt,
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one should cook it over a fierce fire for as long as twelve watches.
Having taken it out when cool of itself, having broken the flask, one should collect
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the essence of orpiment adhering to the top, resembling rock crystal.
[Sixth method:]
Macerated and sprinkled with latex of the milk-hedge tree, [treated] with juices of the milk-hedge tree fourteen times,
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sesame, mustard seeds, moringa, salt, and the 'five friends'—
with an equal quantity of these, one should triturate purified orpiment for one day.
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Blown inside a perforated crucible in a pit hearth, it releases its essence.
[Properties of orpiment:]
Purified orpiment is supreme; it cures cutaneous disease, death, and senescence,
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brings good fortune and bodily fragrance, and greatly prolongs lifespan.
[Realgar:]
Realgar is called kunaṭī, nāgāsyā, raktagandhaka,
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nepālikā, nāgajihvā, and kalyāṇī—having seven names.
[Varieties of realgar:]
Realgar is described as threefold: śyāmāṅgī, kaṇavīrakā,
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and khaṇḍākhyā; its form is determined upon distinguishing [them]:
śyāmikā is considered dark, reddish, rough-textured, and heavy;
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kaṇavīrakā is lustrous, light in weight, and copper-colored;
khaṇḍapūrvikā is powdery, intensely red, and heavy.
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The later mentioned is best in virtues and celebrated as yielding abundant essence.
[Flaws from consuming unpurified realgar:]
Urinary calculus, dysuria, impaired digestive fire, constipation,
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cutaneous disease, and fever are caused by realgar devoid of purification.
[Purification of realgar:]
One should cook realgar for three days in goat urine using a dolāyantra;
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for purification, it should be heated seven times in the sun with curd and goat bile.
[Or,] realgar [treated] with juices of jīvantī, bhṛṅgarāja, and sesbania
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one should cook in a dolāyantra for one watch, and for one watch in urine obtained from a goat;
one should wash it with fermented gruel, and employ it in all formulations.
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Macerated for seven days in the juice of sesbania, realgar is purified.
[Extraction of realgar essence; first method:]
The extraction of essence and the purification of realgar are just like those of orpiment.
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Realgar is to be macerated for a day with beef and the sour juice of citron;
one should macerate it with yellow juices and juices of red and yellow flowers.
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At the end of the day, one should triturate it for one watch combined with the 'five friends'.
Having placed the pill inside a glass flask, [and] having coated that glass flask
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firmly all around to the measure of an inch with cloth and clay,
when dried, one should cook it slowly over a gentle fire in a sand-bath apparatus.
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When the moisture has dried up, having properly sealed the opening with clay and salt,
one should cook it over a fierce fire for as long as twelve watches.
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Having taken it out when cool of itself, having broken the flask, one should collect
the essence of realgar adhering to the top, resembling the morning sun.
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[Second method:]
Realgar is to be macerated for three days with waters of sesbania and moringa;
combined with the drugs for orpiment, its essence becomes like gold.
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[Properties of realgar:]
Realgar is pungent, hot, slightly bitter, and conquers kapha humor and vāta humor;
it destroys itching, phthisis, and cough, and removes poison, evil spirits, and sluggish digestion.
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[Pyrite:]
Mākṣika is madhudhātu, mākṣīka, hemamākṣika,
tāpya, tāpija, tārkṣya, and tāpīdeśasamudbhava.
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[Varieties of pyrite:]
Mākṣīka is of two kinds: gold pyrite and silver pyrite.
Among them, the first pyrite originates from Kānyakubja and resembles gold;
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that produced on the banks of the Tapatī is five-colored and resembles gold;
rich in stone, it is called tāpya and is endowed with virtues.
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And according to variations in its golden form, each is again threefold:
that called kādamba, that named kāravellā, and that known as taṇḍulīyaka.
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<Defects from the consumption of unpurified mākṣika>
Unpurified mākṣika causes obstruction of breath, debility, loss of digestive fire, and eye diseases; / it even kills, O goddess worshipped by the gods!
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<Purification of mākṣika; the first method>
[Cooking] mākṣika with human urine, with decoctions made from kulattha, / with amlavetasa, with the group of acids, with borax, and with the three pungents,
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placed inside a sūraṇa corm, cooked for a day in a swing apparatus, / one should cook it for a day with the juices of plantain; taken out, one should grind it with ghee
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combined with castor oil, [and] cooking it in a pit kiln, one purifies it.
<The second method>
Three parts of mākṣika and one part of borax,
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or cook it with the juices of citron or with juices arising from lime; / one should cook it in an iron vessel until the vessel is thoroughly red
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or turns the color of copper; until that happens, mākṣika is purified.
<The third method>
One should rub śigru root with the juice of agasti flowers,
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and mākṣika is to be ground with these and with juices of pāṣāṇabhedī; / one should then heat its pill in a crucible with ten cow dung cakes in a pit kiln.
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Grinding it again and again, it is purified through six pit kilns.
<The fourth method>
Honey, milk, and sour rice gruel: eight parts of each separately;
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four parts of cow buttermilk, and one part of liquid decoction made from kulattha; / one should fill all this in a vessel, and cook one part of mākṣika [therein].
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One should cook it again for just one yāma over a gentle fire using a swing apparatus; / taking it out and grinding it with citron acids, with ten cow dung cakes
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in a pit kiln, one should do so again and again for twelve days; / mākṣika becomes pure; one may employ it in all preparations.
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<The fifth method>
Having reduced mākṣika to small grains, placing it inside a lump / of jālinī and meghanāda, one should cook it in a swing apparatus in a decoction
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made of kulattha; it attains purity; it is praised for the incineration of metals.
<The sixth method>
In oil, buttermilk, cow urine, kulattha decoction, or sour gruel,
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the wise practitioner should purify mākṣika to remove the mountain defect.
<The seventh method>
With decoctions of kulattha and kodrava, human urine, amlavetasa,
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with borax, the group of acids, or the three pungents, / placed inside a sūraṇa corm, it is to be cooked for a day in a swing apparatus,
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cooked for a day with plantain juices, blown with bellows, taken out, and ground; / through pit kilns with castor oil and ghee, mākṣika is purified.
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<The eighth method>
Gold-colored vimala or mākṣika reduced to small grains, / placed in a paste of punarnavā, one should steam in a decoction of kulattha,
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or mixed with rock salt smeared with citron [juice], made into a bundle, / to be steamed for a day in a swing apparatus; it definitely attains purity.
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<Procedure for extraction of essence from mākṣika; the first method>
Impregnated with cow milk, snuhī latex, and castor oil, / mākṣika, ground for one day and formed into small balls,
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when blown with bellows like mica, [yields its] essence; this is also the method for sasyaka.
<The second method>
One should steam mākṣika for a day in a swing apparatus containing sour gruel;
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powdered, one should cook it for a day with honey and ghee in an iron vessel; / taking it out, one should impregnate it in the heat [of the sun] with snuhī latex for the duration of a day.
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One should grind it for a day combined with soot from the house, ghee, and honey; / placed inside a blind crucible and blown, the essence will become resembling a guñjā berry.
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<The third method>
Impregnated a hundred times in the sun with water from plantain corms, / one should cook mākṣika for a yāma with castor oil and ghee;
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by blowing with bellows as before, the essence will be like a cochineal insect.
<The fourth method>
One should grind mākṣika for a day with latex of snuhī and arka and breast milk,
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mixed with a quarter-part each of kaṅkuṣṭha and borax; / placed in a sealed crucible and blown, the essence will become gem-like.
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<The fifth method>
With the juices of plantain corm, tulasī, and citron, in order, / one should impregnate fine mākṣika seven times with each liquid;
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sealed and blown, an auspicious essence resembling a parrot's beak will fall out.
<The sixth method>
One should impregnate it for two weeks with the group of urines and the group of acids;
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under intense sun, one should grind the mākṣika for a day with sour liquids; / combined with the group of five fluxes, made into a ball, one should blow it strongly.
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Through a curved blowpipe, as in the case of mica, the essence will become copper-like.
<The seventh method>
Impregnated with snuhī latex, cow milk, and castor oil,
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mākṣika, smeared with the five fluxes, is made into a ball at the end of a week; / when blown as before with this, the essence will become resembling lac.
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<The eighth method>
With breast milk, kaṅkuṣṭha, combined with plantain juice, / and combined with the five fluxes, mākṣika, for seven days
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impregnated, one should grind for a yāma, and for a day with castor oil; / one should cook it over a gentle fire until the ball melts.
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By blowing with bellows as with mica, essence resembling the kiṃśuka flower will appear; / this is also the method for all vimalas and for sasyaka.
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<The ninth method>
Thoroughly powdering pure mākṣika, it is to be ground with some sour liquid; / one should wash with sour rice gruel the part that stays at the bottom like gold powder;
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taking that up, one should digest it; when blown, it yields its essence; / and one should employ this in the projection of seeds wherever [required].
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<The tenth method>
One should quickly impregnate mākṣika with water born of plantain leaves; / then, cooked for one day with castor oil, honey, and ghee,
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one should then place that mākṣika into a fired vajramūṣā; / one should place therein an equal amount of a metal-bonding flux;
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one should place it securely into a sealed crucible inside an extraction furnace; / with charcoals derived from khadira wood, one should blow with two bellows,
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joined with a curved blowpipe; the essence of mākṣika certainly falls out.
<The eleventh method>
One should take māṇivandhya and vaiṣṇava in equal parts;
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having ground them with citron juice, one should place them tightly into a sealed casing; / having smeared it well, one should then heat it in a pit kiln with forest-born cow dung cakes.
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Taking that out from the cock pit kiln and allowing it to cool of itself, one should grind it; / having ground it with ripe citron juices, then, as before,
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the discerning practitioner should perform heating with cow dung cakes for just so long / until that calcined paste, ground with sour citron juice, [attains the desired form].
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Smeared upon a sword sharpened on a whetstone, it turns into copper. / Thus purified garuḍa, borax, and lotus-born mercury,
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Combined with ghee and honey, along with jaggery and an equal amount of guñjā, / Placed in a crucible as before, one should blow upon it with a khadira-charcoal fire.
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A soft essence, resembling lead and colored like an indragopa insect, / Drops down indeed without doubt; such is the word of the Omniscient One.
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When the fire becomes white-glowing and soundless, / Then one should know the essence has dropped, never otherwise anywhere.
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<Properties of mākṣika>
The two kinds of mākṣika are astringent, bitter, sweet, and pungent; / Heating, rejuvenative, they cure skin diseases, consumption, hiccup, and vomiting.
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The mineral mākṣika destroys all diseases, is the life-breath of the lord of mercury, and is highly aphrodisiac; / It unites the two metals that are hard to unite, is superior in qualities, and is the foremost among ancient rejuvenatives.
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<Mica>
The origin and so forth of mica was declared at the beginning in its rejuvenative treatment; / Now I will thoroughly proclaim its practical operations as well as its qualities.
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<Method of calcinating mica; first method>
One should grind prepared mica (dhānyābhraka) with juices of meghanāda for a day; / Adding a hundredth part of borax, one should then cook it in an elephant-calcinating pit (gajapuṭa).
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Three calcinations with the juices of mustā, sūraṇa, and punarnavā separately; / Five with juices of kāsamarda, and also with cow's urine and the three myrobalans (varā);
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Again it should be ground and given ten calcinations with decoctions of aerial roots of the banyan; / And six with lemon juice, and three calcinations with cow's milk.
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Trituration, sun-heating, cooking in an earthen vessel, and calcination in succession: / One should perform these four operations, adding borax at each calcination.
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Mica indeed becomes lustreless (niścandra); one should use it in all compound recipes. / This is the general refinement process, but the specific one is now declared.
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<Special refinement process in incineration>
One should take lustreless, killed mica that has undergone the general refinement, / Grind it with decoctions of substances that cure particular diseases, and cook it in a calcination.
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One should do this twenty-one times using apparatuses; it becomes a cure for particular diseases. / This is the special refinement process; it cures those respective diseases.
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In the morning trituration should be done, at midday heating in the sun, / In the evening cooking in an earthen pot, and at night calcination, in succession.
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The refinement process of mica is declared to be fivefold, O supreme Goddess: / Preparation of granular mica (dhānyābhraka), extraction of the essence, purifying operation,
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Proper incineration (sumṛtīkaraṇa), and likewise rendering non-toxic (amṛtīkaraṇa). / In the killing of the essence of mica, and in the killing of mica sheets,
2.1.152
Cinnabar and borax, respectively, are declared to be the best and most commended. / <Second method>
One should cook prepared mica with a decoction of mustā in twenty-five calcinations,
2.1.153
And likewise with cow's urine and decoctions of the three myrobalans, O Ruler of the gods; / One with the juices of kāsamarda, and three calcinations with cow's milk.
2.1.154
Mica indeed becomes lustreless; one should use it in all compound recipes. / Endowed with the specific refinement process, it cures those respective diseases.
2.1.155
<Third method>
One part of prepared mica and two parts of borax: / Having ground them and sealed them inside a blind crucible, one should blow on it with intense fire.
2.1.156
One should use the powder that has cooled naturally in all compound recipes. / Endowed with the specific refinement process, it cures those respective diseases.
2.1.157
<Fourth method>
One should grind prepared mica with sours and then keep it in the sun; / One should subject it to calcination, and then moisten and grind it again with sour [liquid].
2.1.158
Twenty times; then mica rigid from calcination / One should throw into milk, grind it with milks, and having thrown it into milk, place it in the sun.
2.1.159
One should perform calcination twenty-one times, repeatedly in this manner. / Taṇḍula, vajravallī, tālamūlī, punarnavā,
2.1.160
Śārṅgerī, black pepper, and balā, together with milk: / One should grind the aforementioned mica with each of these separately for three days each.
2.1.161
Having placed it in the sun, one should cook it in a calcination with each one repeatedly. / In this way the mica becomes lustreless, resembling collyrium, and killed.
2.1.162
<Fifth method>
One should add one-tenth part of black pepper to dry prepared mica, / Grind it with the sour group, and macerate it with sours for three days.
2.1.163
When dried, it should be blown firmly in a sealed vessel with khadira charcoal. / Then, checking it in the upper vessel, one should sprinkle it with a certain sour liquid.
2.1.164
The prepared [mica] should be sprinkled right there six times repeatedly with sours. / With the juices derived from the roots and leaves of agastya, śigru, and punarnavā,
2.1.165
Having ground the mica, one should sprinkle it with that, blow on it six times, and sprinkle it. / That mica, washed with sugar, honey, ghee, and cow's milk, is to be ground;
2.1.166
Having sealed it, it should be cooked in six calcinations, grinding it again and again; / Having ground it with the juices of matsyākṣī and ekavīrā, one should cook it three times.
2.1.167
Cooking it thus in elephant-calcinating pits, the mica becomes lustreless. / One should use the red-ash (sindūra) of sheet-mica in all compound recipes.
2.1.168
<Sixth method>
One should grind prepared mica for one yāma with the fresh juice of matsyākṣī; / One should cook it thus in elephant-calcinating pits seven times with tulasī juices,
2.1.169
Seven times with kokilākṣa juices, and likewise with aloe fresh juice, / In the same way with white dūrvā juices, and likewise with juices of vyāghrī tuber,
2.1.170
Seven times with punarnavā juices, and then likewise with the five nectars (pañcāmṛta). / Mica indeed becomes lustreless; one should use it in all compound recipes.
2.1.171
<Seventh method>
Equal parts of prepared mica and borax, ground for a day with cow's urine, juices of tulasī, / Vākucī, sūraṇa, and nālī, one should cook in a calcination.
2.1.172
Grinding it again and again with the liquids, one should cook it in a calcination at the end of each day.
2.1.173
Sealing it again and again with calcinations, mica becomes lustreless. / <Eighth method>
Having ground the bark born of the root of peṭālī with sour fermented gruel (āranāla),
2.1.174
One should grind the mica with that liquid for a day and cook it in an elephant-calcinating pit. / Thus seven calcinations should be done, and seven calcinations with curd;
2.1.175
Likewise with juices of yava and ciñcā, the mica becomes lustreless. / <Ninth method>
Prepared mica, with latex of arka or juices of the root of arka,
2.1.176
Should be repeatedly ground and cooked in a calcination seven times; it is definitely killed. / <Tenth method>
One should place prepared mica inside husked grain fermented gruel (tuṣāmla) in the sun for a day.
2.1.177
Having triturated that ball for a yāma and sealed it, one should cook it in an elephant-calcinating pit. / In this way it should be placed in cotton-plant water and cooked in a calcination.
2.1.178
In this way, [the mica] should be placed in cow's milk, ground, and roasted in an incineration pit; / thereafter, repeatedly with sour liquids, cow's milk, and cotton [plant juice],
2.1.179
cooking in the sun, grinding, cooking in a pot, and incineration in a pit successively: / when twenty-one incinerations have been completed, the mica becomes devoid of luster.
2.1.180
[This is] the procedure for making nectar of all killed micas. / <Properties of mica> / Mica, sky, bhṛṅga, many-childed, born of Umā:
2.1.181
the red vermilion preparation of foliated mica is nectar, supremely beneficial, / destroyer of the three humors, strength-giving, aphrodisiac, health-giving, pure,
2.1.182
curing all diseases, mild, antitoxic, and a rejuvenation therapy. / <Cinnabar: Synonyms> / Cinnabar, darada, powdered mercury, born of mercury,
2.1.183
mercury-bellied, fine-colored, destroyer of base metals, perfection-giving mercury. / <Cinnabar: Subtypes> / Cinnabar is to be known as threefold: carmāra, śukatuṇḍaka,
2.1.184
and haṃsapāda. Among them, the first should be employed in operations with silver; / one should know that to be the lowest, and śukatuṇḍa to be middling.
2.1.185
One should employ it in the practice of gold and silver transmutation, O Supreme Lady! / Haṃsapāda is exceedingly superior; it indeed accomplishes all operations.
2.1.186
Its essence is quicksilver itself, from the three divisions of cinnabar. / <Śukatuṇḍa: Physical properties> / Resembling gold dross, having that form, a killer of iron,
2.1.187
carmāra is of sharp appearance, while śukatuṇḍaka is well pleasing. / <Haṃsapāda: Properties> / Resembling a hibiscus flower, haṃsapāda is the most excellent.
2.1.188
In rejuvenation therapy, in the capture of all quicksilver, in all colorations, / and in the killing of metals, it is best, [as well as] in the work of enhancing color.
2.1.189
Likewise, in the fixation of color of zinc ore, it is considered foremost. / It has no impurity, defect, or the like, and is esteemed in all operations.
2.1.190
<Purification of cinnabar> / Cinnabar, soaked diligently seven times with ewe's milk / and sour group [liquids], definitely attains purity.
2.1.191
<Extraction of cinnabar's essence> / When cinnabar is distilled in a distillation apparatus into a receptacle of water, / it releases its essence resembling quicksilver, without doubt.
2.1.192
<Properties of cinnabar> / Whatever qualities are proclaimed in mercury, those qualities exist in cinnabar. / It is declared to relieve newly arisen fever and to destroy virulent typhoid-like fever.
2.1.193
<Red ochre> / Red ochre, mountain mineral, red mineral, gavedhukam. / <Red ochre: Subtypes> / Red ochre is proclaimed to be of two kinds; of these, the first is svarṇagairika,
2.1.194
and the other is pāṣāṇagairika; the former is supreme in virtues. / <Properties of red ochre> / Blood-colored, smooth, unctuous, sweet, aphrodisiac, cooling, light,
2.1.195
beneficial to the eyes, destroying internal hemorrhages, relieving poison, hiccups, and vomiting, / curing burning fever, excellent; red ochre destroys gold.
2.1.196
<Pāṣāṇagairika: Physical properties> / Pāṣāṇagairika is said to be hard and copper-colored. / <Capala> / Piercing the body, piercing metals, capalā binds mercury.
2.1.197
Capalā has many varieties according to the forms of all metals: / gold-like, silver-like, made of copper, lead-like, bearing the form of tin,
2.1.198
iron-like, bronze-like, red, and poisoned. / <Nature of capala> / These have the nature of the essence of metals; the poisoned variety partakes of green metal.
2.1.199
Having obtained the capala named poison, one should apply it to what is lifeless; / [when roasted] in an incineration pit with wild cow-dung cakes, one must completely avoid the smoke.
2.1.200
The smoke of it should be avoided; indeed, one should avoid touching it from afar. / By eating it or by touching it, one truly dies immediately.
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Linked texts (1)
- Ānandakanda — Sanskrit