Rasarnava 8

English (machine translation) 8

Language: English

8.1

The blessed Devī said: / Of the primary minerals, the metals, and the gems, O lord of gods, / tell the measure of coloration and the preparation of the seeds, O Lord.

8.2

The blessed Bhairava said: / In the primary minerals, the coloration of copper is twofold, O ruler of gods; / when the blemish of the mountain is destroyed, they color mercury.

8.3

Blue vitriol, capala, lapis lazuli, and pyrite, / vimala, and red ochre—of these, each is double [the previous].

8.4

In loadstones such as the bhrāmaka, it is onefold, twofold, or threefold. / And in mica, each white, yellow, and reddish [color] is in the white [mica].

8.5

Eighteen thousand colorations reside in sulfur; / ten thousand in cinnabar, O goddess, and two thousand in realgar.

8.6

Seven thousand in calamine, but four in kaṅkuṣṭha; / they shine forth within mercury if digestion takes place.

8.7

Five hundred with an excess of twelve colorations are established in lead; / a thousand less one hundred colorations are established in tin.

8.8

Fifty hundreds of colorations are established within copper; / and sixteen red, yellow, and white colorations are in gold.

8.9

Sixty thousand colorations reside in sapphire; / and in the great sapphire, O ruler of the gods, double those colorations reside.

8.10

In ruby, O ruler of the gods, there are thirteen hundred thousand colorations. / The gem originating from elephant and water is known as pearl.

8.11

Three thousand in that of the elephant, and six thousand in the aquatic one; / and nine hundred thousand colorations are established in the ruby.

8.12

That which cuts all metals and which is cut by nothing— / that is diamond; its coloration is known as two hundred thousand, O ruler of the gods.

8.13

Sixteen thousand reside in topaz; / but seventy-five thousand colorations are declared in emerald, O beloved.

8.14

If one does not know the measure of coloration of penetrated mercury, / one might calcine the metal too much or reveal too little.

A king of men may do it who knows [this], O Pārvatī: / one should determine the measure of coloration by the standard of a hundred crores, / and having seen contact in this way, a hundred crores are transmuted.

8.16

Beyond this I shall declare the preparation of seeds, O beloved. / A seed is twofold according to gold and silver, O sovereign lady:

8.17

The gold seed is by yellow and reddish [colors]; the silver seed is by white ones. / It is further threefold: contrived, colored, and cooked.

8.18

And that contrived [seed] is twofold, through the distinction of pure and mixed.

8.19

The preparation of seeds from mercury, secondary minerals, and metals is separate; / it is pure, or mixed through combination, according to what is available, O ruler of gods.

8.20

The metallic essence melted in mica, purified with glass and borax, / cooked and compacted by sprinkling the paste of tamarind fruit acid and nirguṇḍī leaves, O goddess, / becomes suitable for mercurial amalgam paste.

8.21

And through fats, alkalis, and the acid group, and through three calcination fires of realgar, / calcined in the fumigation apparatus by anointment with fumigating substances and aromatics, / or by the procedure for tin or calcined orpiment,

8.22

or when pyrite and cinnabar, or calamine, are calcined, / black leaf of gold and silver liquefies inside mercury.

8.23

That which is called composite, difficult to unite, O beloved, designated soft and hard— / then ground, O goddess, the combination of pairs is liquefied; / it becomes homogeneous in the interior, and liquefies into the king of mercury.

8.24

Beyond this I shall declare the combination of pairs; listen:

8.25

Boerhavia diffusa, plantain bulb, kākamācī, and punarnavā, / powdered human skull, along with guñjā and borax, / thoroughly blasted with milk and oil—gold and mica unite, O beloved.

8.26

By this very same procedure one should unite silver and mica also.

8.27

Having melted tin, O ruler of gods, combined again with mercury, / one should grind it with water of plantain bulb along with borax; / placed in a blind crucible and blasted, tin and mica unite in an instant.

8.28

Powder of human skull, woman's milk, wild drumstick, / combined with guñjā and borax—tin and mica unite in an instant.

8.29

Having powdered mica, drenched in the juice of kākamācī, / touched with wood apple water, and combined with mercury and borax, / inserted between leaves of tin and blasted, tin and mica unite.

8.30

Having melted with mustard oil, one should throw in ash produced from apāmārga; / tin and mica with orpiment, and in lead and mica, realgar.

8.31

Gold and mica [unite] by lead and pyrite; silver and mica from tin and orpiment; / copper and mica by sulfur; wrought iron and mica from rock salt and cinnabar; / tin and mica unite by orpiment; lead and mica by realgar.

8.32

Lāṅgalī, hair of a yak-tail whisk, cotton seed, horse gram, / earthworm, stone-breaker, woman's milk, and cochineal insect—

8.33

in a crucible coated with these, thoroughly blasted with intense fire, / loadstone, mica, stone, and vimala unite completely in an instant.

8.34

Creeper, flesh of a musk shrew, combined with poison and borax, / by coating the crucible, accomplishes union in all pairs.

8.35

Mica, holy basil, horn, fat of a frog, and poison, / by combination with guñjā and borax, bring union in all metallic essences.

8.36

With borax, wool, bitumen, karṇākhyā, gooseberry, and crab, / ground with woman's milk, all pairs unite.

8.37

With dhātakī, guggulu, jaggery, resin of sarja, yavakṣāra, and borax / ground with woman's breast-milk, every paired union in rejuvenating alchemy [succeeds].

8.38

Fine powder of mica essence combined with the previous paste, / placed inside a blind crucible and blown, unites instantly with the alloy.

8.39

Projected with pyrite, calamine, blue vitriol, and cinnabar, / the mica essence becomes bound, and when strongly blown, it then unites.

8.40

One should smelt together all the rasas, uparasas, and metals; / they attain mutual union and melt like water.

8.41

Thus are the seeds prepared; listen further to their coloring.

8.42

Mica colored with pyrite powder and copper powder, / paired with the essence of pyrite, brings about the coloring of the king of mercury.

8.43

Triturated many times with reddish creeper and cow's urine, / with realgar, sulfur, gold pyrite, and cinnabar,

8.44

projected, treated with red substances and unctuous liquids, and then calcined, / it effects the coloring of the king of mercury, especially wrought iron and copper.

8.45

Pure, unblemished copper projected with cinnabar / and digested in threefold amount makes mercury stainless and resembling lac.

8.46

Having added a double portion of calamine to well-smelted copper, O Lady, / and powder of black mica, through repeated calcination fires with red substances,

8.47

or gold calcined with pyrite and projected with a threefold amount, / and calamine in a small vessel combined with pyrite and rock salt,

8.48

until it resembles a cochineal insect—from this double digestion, / it makes mercury liquefied and resembling gold; of this there is no doubt.

8.49

One should color mica, gold, and copper with realgar, pyrite, / superior red ochre, and calamine.

8.50

The seeds are colored in this way; listen now to the mature seeds.

8.51

One should throw in mahārasas, uparasas, and iron metals, / an equal part of matching pyrite, through projection of sulfur.

8.52

One should project this hundreds of times; unexhausted and remaining, / in equal measure with the king of mercury, it melts surely in its interior.

8.53

That very [seed] is praised for fixing the flux, in digestion, O ruler of the gods, / in coloring the king of mercury, and in the flowing process.

8.54

Sprinkled hundreds of times with groups of red substances and unctuous liquids, / it is praised all the more among them, effecting transmutation by a thousandth part.

8.55

Refined with lead and tin in operations of gold and silver, / mica essence should be combined with copper; it becomes paired in rejuvenating alchemy.

8.56

With unctuous liquids, alkalis, the five acids, and those rasas such as orpiment, / one should introduce tin and lead, equal, double, or triple, into copper.

8.57

Sprinkled with red unctuous liquids, that is known as mercurial extraction.

8.58

Pyrite, sulfur, yellow orpiment, realgar, / vaikrānta, superior loadstone, blue vitriol, pure stibnite, / and calamine—incessantly projected and powdered, one should introduce into gold.

8.59

With iron flake, pyrite, kaṅkuṣṭha, pure mica, / calcined copper, realgar essence, milk of snuhī and arka, and cinnabar, / lead becomes lifeless through repeated calcination fires.

8.60

With mercury, orpiment, conch shell, mica, and alkali of tamarind, as well as tin, / calcined lead, calcined tin, copper, or calcined wrought iron, / one should introduce each singly into excellent gold, O you who are adored by the gods.

8.61

When lead has become non-reviving, and gold has been refined hundreds of times by the class [of ingredients], / the luster in copper becomes like gorocanā, and in silver it resembles [pure] silver.

8.62

Wrought iron and mica equal to copper, and likewise double of pyrite, / melted together and pulverized, are killed with seven calcination fires.

8.63

When gold is refined a hundredfold, one should digest an equal amount of that seed; / by coating sheets of silver and copper, one should transmute with a hundredth part.

8.64

Applying pyrite above and below, copper becomes equal to gold; / thus refined tenfold, the seed is like the primary cause.

8.65

One should smelt calamine and mica into loadstone and copper in increasing proportions, / and that, destroyed with pyrite, one should introduce into the seed, O dear one.

8.66

One should introduce destroyed pyrite and lead, multiplied thirty-two fold, into gold; / with a projection of thirtyfold realgar, it is proclaimed as the lead seed.

8.67

With a projection of pyrite and orpiment, one should introduce this essence / of yellow mica into the seed; it transmutes that which has been cleansed with woman's [blood].

8.68

Lead produces softness, and when refined it produces redness; / wrought iron when projected gives yellowness, and poison removes the blackness residing in loadstone.

8.69

Thus the gold seed has been declared; listen now to the silver seed.

8.70

Wrought iron, mica, pyrite, vimala, and calamine in equal parts, / and four parts of tin; having blown all of it, it is finely ground.

8.71

It should be killed with a calcination fire; refined, it transmutes silver. / One should introduce destroyed pyrite into tin, thirty-two fold in silver; / from a projection of thirtyfold orpiment, it is proclaimed as the tin seed.

8.72

One should introduce tin, vimala, wrought iron, and also mica essence, / or tin and mica, or pyrite essence, through projection of orpiment and pyrite; / and one should cause sprinkling with white flowers combined with unctuous liquids.

8.73

The silver seeds have been declared; listen to the coloring of the seeds.

8.74

Wrought iron, pyrite, and copper, and lead killed with capala, / until it resembles red lead—with that one should color the seeds.

8.75

Having placed lead in a calamine crucible along with leaves of the seed of Brahmā, / burned by applying fire below, when it takes on the color of fire,

8.76

with vāsaka, vibhītaka, teak, kiṃśuka, and śigru, / with the flower of koraṇḍaka, and of bakula and arjuna,

8.77

with ahimāra, nāginī, kumārī, and nāgakanyā, / and with a threefold amount of realgar, and boiled with goat's urine,

8.78

triturated in a calamine crucible and flooded repeatedly, / it is killed in just seven days, O you who are adored by the gods.

8.79

One should first calcine it with sulfur, and thereafter with acids. / This is to be applied in coloring leaves, seeds, and the king of mercury, / in unveiling, in penetration, and especially in the solidification of amalgam paste.

8.80

In the juice of madder and kiṃśuka, khadira, red sandalwood, / oleander, Himalayan cedar, pine, the two kinds of turmeric,

8.81

and other red flowers, ground with lac juice, / one should cook an oil, O Devī; with it one should color the seeds.

8.82

In a double decoction of red flowers and the group of red and yellow substances, / and fourfold milk, one part oil [is cooked], O ruler of the gods,

8.83

derived from jyotiṣmatī, karañja, and bitter bottle gourd, / endowed with the juice of pāṭalī, pippalī, kāma, and kākatuṇḍī,

8.84

and combined with one part fat of frog, boar, ram, snake, / fish, tortoise, and leech, with a sixteenth part of well-ground [substances].

8.85

Cooked with earthworm, pure pyrite, and herbs that unite pairs, / and strained, this is called the flowing oil.

8.86

Just as the seed, equal [in amount] to the mercury, undergoes internal liquefaction, O beloved,
likewise, through its pervasive quality, all parts are held to be equal.

8.87

That which is cooked, superior, and equal within its core, which liquefies, would also color it.

8.88

Thus the seeds are spoken of; one should digest them by means of alchemical fluxes.
Tell me then, O ruler of gods: what else do you wish to hear?

Linked texts (1)

Rasārṇava — Sanskrit