Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c44.s5.t2.14

v2.c44.s5.t2.14

In a separate chapter (no. 50) on swords, entitled khaḍgalakṣaṇam, Varāhamihira provided some recipes about the hardening of steel which was called śastrapāna or ‘sword-drink’ (the word śastra had been used in Yavanajātaka to indicate steel). A sword rubbed with sesamum oil, and then smeared with an unguent prepared with the juice of the plant arka (calotropis gigantea), the gelatine from the horn of the sheep, and the excreta from the doves and mice, was to be given one of the ‘drinks’; the steel pasted with oil and unguent was made red-hot in fire and then treated with one of the following: blood, ghī, water, milk of mammal animals or fish-bile. Then this had to be sharpened. (Br. Saṁ., 50. 23-25) Another process of heat-treatment was described as: