Anandakanda 2.4

English (machine translation) 2.4

Language: English

2.4.1

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

2.4.2

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

2.4.3

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

2.4.4

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

2.4.5

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.

2.4.7

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

2.4.8

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.

2.4.9

<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

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

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

2.4.12

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

2.4.13

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

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

2.4.15

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

2.4.16

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.

2.4.17

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

2.4.18

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

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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.

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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;

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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

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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.

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

2.4.24

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

2.4.25

<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.

2.4.26

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

2.4.27

<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,

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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.

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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.

2.4.30

<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.

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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.

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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.

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<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.

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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,

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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.

2.4.36

<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.

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

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

2.4.39

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

2.4.40

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

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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,

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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.

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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.

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

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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],

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

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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.

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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.

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

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<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,

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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,

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

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

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

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

2.4.56

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,

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

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

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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.

2.4.60

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.

Linked texts (1)

Ānandakanda — Sanskrit