The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t4.34

c14.s9.t4.34

We shall now point to one or two other Sanskritisings or Hinduizings of the Persian text. In *Ain* 13 which discusses the origin of metals, Abul Fazl speaks of the ''seven bodies'' within quotation marks. According to some manuscripts the Hindus are referred to as giving the opinion that the metal called *ricac* is a ''silver in the state of leprosy.'' One wonders if Abul Fazl is not dealing in this chapter with the Hindu doctrine of seven metals. And one may not be surprised if *zinc*, the seventh metal, which began to be recognized by the fourteenth century Hindu writers on medicine like Madanapāla, is Abul Fazl's ''silver in the state of leprosy,'' for some of the Sanskrit names for zinc, namely, *rasaka*, *rūpyabhrātā* etc. connect it with silver.