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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c44.s6: The Rasaśāstra Texts

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c44.s6

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The Rasaśāstra Texts

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The Indian literatures on atomism provided at best a polemical ground and could not establish any viable link with the experimental discipline of Rasaśāstra or Indian alchemy, later developed into Iatro-chemistry. The Rasaśāstra tradition had its origin in Atharvaveda, the Sāṃkhya system and the Āyurvedic texts of Caraka and Suśruta. Through Nāgārjuna and other stalwarts, the subject evolved gradually, and gathered momentum after the seventh century AD. A chronological account of the relevant texts is summarised in Table 8.1.

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Table 8. 1

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**Chronological Account of Principal Rasaśāstra Texts** **(Dates Approximate)**

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| 600 BC | Sāṃkhya System of Philosophy, Kapila |
| 500 BC | Vaiśeṣika System of Kaṇāda |
| 400 BC | Āyurveda of Caraka and Suśruta (codified later) |
| 300 BC | Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya |
| 200 BC | Yoga system of Patañjali. Also Yājñavalkya |
| 1st century AD | Saṃhitās of Caraka and Suśruta codified |
| AD 50 | Atomic theory of the Jainas |
| 2nd century AD | Nyāyasūtra of Gautama and its commentary |
| AD 200 | Mādhyamika Philosophy and Rasaratnākara (RR) of Nāgārjuna. Was RR in present form compiled later in the 7th-8th century AD? |
| AD 270 | Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja |
| 4th century AD | Bower Manuscript of Ancient Medicine |
| 5th century AD | Kāmasūtra of Vātsāyana; Padārthadharmasaṃgraha of Praśastapāda |
| AD 450 | Amara-kośa or Nāmaliṅgānuśāsanam of Amarsiṃha |
| AD 499 | Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa |
| AD 550 | Bṛhatsaṃhitā of Varāhamihira |
| **700-1300 AD : Tantric Period** | |
| 7th-8th century AD | Compilation of RR, the Buddhist text of Nāgārjuna (?) |

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8th century AD | *Nidāna* of Mādhavācārya or Mādhavakara 800-850 AD | *Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya* (ASHR) of Vāgbhaṭa 9th century AD | Probable date of *Sarveśvararāyana* (SSRS) and *Dhātuvāda* (DV) of Nalina, later translated into Tibetan in 11th century AD. AD 1000 | *Siddhayoga* of Vṛnda AD 1019-1029 | *Al-Birūnī* in India AD 1050 | *Chakradatta* of Chakrapani Dutta

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11th-13th Century AD : Safe Retreat of Rasaśāstra texts to Bhutan and Tibet 11th century AD | *Rasaṛdaya* (RHR) by Govindabhāgavat written at Kirataland or Bhutan (P.C. Ray thinks it could belong to 9th-10th century)

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| *Rasārṇavakalpa* (RNVK)

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12th century AD | *Rasārṇava* (RNV), a Hindu Tāntric text. 12th century AD | *Rasendracūḍāmaṇi* (RCD) of Somadeva

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1300-1550 AD : Iatro-Chemical Period 13th century AD | *Rasaprakāśa Sudhākara* (RPS) of Yaśodhara 13th century AD | *Rasacintāmaṇi* (RCM) of Madanāntadeva 13th century AD | *Rasakalpa* (RKP), part of *Rudrayamala Tantra* (RYT) Late 13th or Early 14th century AD | *Rasaratnasamuccaya* (RRS) of Vāgbhaṭācārya 14th century AD | *Rasajalalakṣmī* (RJL) of Viṣṇudeva 14th century AD | *Rasendra-Cintāmaṇi* (RCT) of Dhuṇḍhuknāth 14th century AD | *Rasendra-Sāra-Saṃgraha* (RASASA) 14th century AD | *Rasanakṣatramālikā* (RNM) of Mathanasimha 14th century AD | *Dhāturatnamālā* (DRN) 15th-16th century AD | *Rasapradīpa* 15th-16th century AD | *Dhātukriyā* or *Dhātumañjarī* (DKM), a part of RYT 15th-16th century AD | *Suvarṇatantra* or *Svarṇatantra* (ST)

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The Indian alchemy revolved around two objectives: (i) the transmutation process for converting base metals (like lead, tin, mercury or copper) into the noble metals (gold and silver) and (ii) preparation of the ‘Elixir of Life’ for attaining immortality. The Indian alchemists pursued the above objectives in their laboratories, driven by superstitious premises.

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Initially, the recipes of Patañjali, Caraka, Suśruta and the Mahāyāna mystic Nāgārjuna provided some impetus. After second century AD Indian alchemy came in contact with the Chinese tradition which believed in the efficacy of cinnabar or mercuric sulphide composed of Yin (female) and Yang (male) principles. The Indians adapted the Chinese idea, and evolved a Tāntric notion of alchemy by associating mercury with God Śiva’s semen and sulphur with Goddess Pārvatī’s menstrual discharge. Cinnabar became the symbol of the entire creation. Possibly the Mahāyāna Buddhists like Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga, who had access to both the Chinese (Taoist) and Indian (Tāntric) traditions, initiated the Tāntric variety of Indian alchemy, which gradually blossomed during the period AD 700-1300.

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Around AD 1300, the Rasavidyā of India entered a more mature Iatro-chemical phase. Ray (1956:158) wrote:

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The fantastic and extravagant ideas, impossible of realisation, had subsided into something more practical and tangible. The numerous preparations of mecury, iron, copper and other metals, although they could not secure immortality or revive the dead, were found to be helpful accessories in medicine.

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AD 1300-1600 period has been labelled as the era of Indian Iatro-chemistry during which many contacts were established with the Arab alchemy. During this period, the tradition of European alchemy was evolved mainly due to the efforts of Paracelsus (AD 1490-1541). The evolved Indian rasaśāstra texts such as Rasaratnasamuccaya described a number of chemical substances under the titles mahārasas, uparasas, dhātus, etc. and also several apparatus for synthesis and purification of these materials.

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Many of these texts compiled old informations and added some newly derived laboratory data. We would omit the first category (old informations) and mention the relatively new acquisitions of knowledge pertaining to the non-gem minerals and metals.

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The Texts of the Tāntric Alchemy Period (7th-13th Century AD)

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We have already pointed out that the Mahāyāna Buddhist scholar, Nāgārjuna introduced alchemy during the second century AD. His Rasaratnākara text might have been amplified and re-edited during successive centuries. For nearly four centuries, the Hindu (Śaiva)-Buddhist (Mahāyāna) and Indo-Chinese cultural contacts resulted in Tāntric philosophy and mineral/metal-based medicines.

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The medical treatise Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya of Vāgbhaṭa (AD 800-850) mentioned widespread uses of minerals and natural salts like copper sulphate, red ochre, realgar, orpiment, iron sulphate, etc. in external applications for sores. The idea of cauterisation of wounds by alkalis was borrowed from Suśruta. There were only a few examples of mercury salt therapy which was evidently not widespread in its use.

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Nidāna of Mādhavācārya or Mādhavakara might have been composed in the eighth century AD (or ninth, according to another view). Nidāna was one of the medical treatises translated by the order of the Caliphs.

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Sarveśvararasāyana (SSRS) and Nalina’s Dhātuvāda (DV) were probably composed during the ninth century AD, and translated into Tibetan two centuries later. (Bhattacharyya, 1932; Ray, 1956: 123-24) SSRS, 5 described the reaction between copper and sulphur to produce copper sulphide. The art of purifying ranga or tin was known (SSRS, 6) Dhātuvāda described the preparations of gold-silver-lead alloy and copper amalgam using copper and quicksilver (DV, 4-5).

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Dhātuvāda described a process of coating iron with metallic copper. Plant ash (potassium salt) and sour wine (vinegar or acetic acid) when kept in a copper vessel gives a ‘paint’ (solution containing copper acetate) which when applied on iron gives a deposit of copper (DV, 2-3; Ray, 1956:144 and 452). This is the first Indian reference to the hydrometallurgical route of making copper, using the displacement reaction with iron:

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Cu²⁺ + Fe⁰ → Cu⁰ + Fe²⁺ (Solution) (Metal) (Metal) (Solution)

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In a well-researched paper, T.N. Lung (1986) has documented that China was the first nation to discover the above cementation route to make copper from the mine water and vitriol spring containing cupric ion in solution. Several records on the process were written during the period second century BC to second century AD. One Eastern Han Period (AD 25-220) recipe actually used vinegar antedating Nalina’s process mentioned in his Dhātuvāda. Commercial production of cement copper started in China around AD 1086. It is quite possible that the reference in Dhātuvāda on cementation of copper indicated India’s scientific-cum-technological contact with China through Tibet.

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Ever since the days of Vāgbhaṭa the medicinal use of metallic preparations went on increasing. This was witnessed and recorded by Al-Biruni. Vrinda’s Siddhayoga (AD 1000) mentioned many metallic preparations such as ‘killed’ or oxidised iron, killed copper, a Nāgārjuna-varti, the reaction product of copper and sulphur : parpaṭitāmram, of mercury and sulphur: rasāmṛta-cūrṇam, etc. Vrinda recorded that नागार्जुनन लिखिता स्तम्भे पाटलीपुत्रके nāgārjunena likhitā stambhe pāṭaliputrake (Siddhayoga, LX. 148-149)

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Such recipes suggested by Nāgārjuna were written on pillars at Pāṭaliputra.

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Similarly Cakrapāṇi Dutta mentioned in his *Cakradatta* (AD 1050) the medicinal uses of killed iron, *mandura* or the rust of iron, *raupyamal*, the calx of silver, *kajjali* or mercuric sulphide and *tāmrayoga*, a product of sulphur and copper from Nepal. He also formulated a depilatory soap to be made by saponifying mustard oil with plant ash (potassium carbonate) and lime.

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The Indian contact with Tibet had begun several centuries earlier but this culminated with the migration of Dīpaṅkara or Atisa (AD 980-1053), the famous Buddhist monk of Udandapura and Vikramasila. These famous monasteries were destroyed by Muslim invaders in the twelfth century, and by that time many Buddhist and alchemical texts had been safely transported to Bhutan and Tibet.

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Govindabhagavat wrote *Rasahṛdaya* (*RHR*) in the eleventh century AD at the request of the king of the Kirataland, i.e., the region adjoining the modern Bhutan. He mentioned eight *rasas* including *vaikrānta* (tourmaline?), *kānta* (a kind of iron); eight *uparasas* such as *kankustha* (magnesium and sodium sulphate, a purgative); six salts including *sauvarchala* (saltpetre), *chulika* (sal ammoniac), *romaka* etc.

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A special feature in *Rasahṛdaya* text is the description of eighteen steps for purification of mercury in an apparatus like *dipikā yantra* (*RHR*, 1.1-8). It was stated that pure copper, amalgamated with mercury, when subjected to heat and distillation (*pātana*), produced pure mercury freed from lead and tin impurities (*RHR*, 1.8). Also described were various processes of ‘killing’ mercury with sulphur (*RHR*, 16.11-13). Orpiment or a mixture of sulphur and mica (*RHR*, 3.19-23). *Abhra* was probably a sulphide mineral with metallic lustre sometimes mistranslated as a ‘mica’.

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Another worth-mentioning text written in the eleventh century AD is *Samarāṅgana-Sūtradhāra* of Bhoja, the Paramāra ruler of Dhārā (AD 1000-1055). This work on medieval Indian architecture dealt, in its eighth chapter, with the examination of the earth and the varieties of its clay prior to building (8.02-8.77). Chapter 29 described beautification of seats, chairs, etc. with gold, silver, bell metal, brass (*arakūṭa*, 29.06) and gems. Bhoja mentioned the property of phosphorescence exhibited by diamond, shining in the dark.

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In the twelfth century AD, Somadeva culled his materials for *Rasendracūḍāmaṇi* from the pre-existing chemical treatises. He mentioned an alloy made of copper, tin, zinc and lead. Lead and tin metals when ‘killed’ were known as *capala* (quick-flowing), because on heating, these ‘resurrect’ quick-flowing or low-melting metals. Somadeva mentioned antimony as a metal (*varaṇāga*-lead like) and its preparation:

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तीक्ष्णं नीलाञ्जनोपेतं ध्मातं हि बहुशो दृढम्।
मृदुकृष्णं द्रुतद्रावं वरनागं तदुच्यते।।
*tīkṣṇaṃ nīlāñjanopetaṃ dhmātaṃ hi bahuśo dṛḍham* |
*mṛdukṛṣṇaṃ drutadrāvaṃ varaṇāgaṃ taducyate* ||

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Nilāñjana (stibnite), mixed with *tīkṣṇaṃ* (cast iron) and strongly heated several times, yields a superior kind of lead, which is readily fusible and is of mild black colour.

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*Rasaratnasamuccaya* (8.98) reported that Somadeva had compiled the technical terms from different texts ‘like the jewels from the ocean’.

Rasārṇava — A Brāhmaṇical Tantra

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Many of the early *Rasaśāstra* texts had been composed by the Mahāyāna Buddhists who maintained close links with the Brāhmaṇical tradition of *Tantra* and the Śiva-Pārvatī cult. With the flight of Buddhist monks and demolition of monasteries by the Muslim invaders, the Brāhmaṇical texts like *Rasārṇava* (*RNV*) of the twelfth century AD became very important.

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*Rasārṇava* described a large number of equipment or apparatus, crucibles, furnace, etc. for processing of minerals, and metals. (Ray and Kaviratna, 1910, 1985) *Dolayantram* for example was an apparatus for steam-heating of suspended solids. Crucibles were made of different kinds of earth, iron-rust and burnt husks of paddy. Covered crucible resembled the nipple of a cow and were fitted with lids having raised heads. The flames were stated to be specifically coloured due to specific salts of copper, tin, lead, etc. (*RNV*, 49). The characteristic of molten pure metal in a crucible was described:

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न विस्फुलिंगा न च बुद्बुदाश्च यदा न रेखापटलं न शब्दः।
मूषागतं रत्नसमं स्थिरश्च तदा विशुद्धं प्रवदन्ति लोहम्।।
*na visphuliṅgā na ca budbudāśca yadā na rekhāpaṭalaṃ na śabdaḥ* |
*mūsāgataṃ ratnasamaṃ sthiraśca tadā viśuddhaṃ pravadanti loham* ||
(*RNV*, 52-55)

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A pure metal is that, which when melted in a crucible, does not give off sparks nor bubbles, nor spurts, nor emits any sound, nor shows any lines on the surface, but is tranquil like a gem (shows signs of tranquil fusion).

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Procedures were described for making copper metal from mākṣika (RNV, 7.12-13), vimala (7.20-21) sasyaka (7.41-44) etc., the first two are pyrites bearing copper, and the third copper sulphate. The red copper metal was compared with coccinella insect: *indragopasaṅkāśam sattvam*. Rasārṇava repeated Nāgārjuna’s recipe for making zinc (from calamine or rasaka) the metal which is ‘like tin and converts copper to gold’ (actually to brass):

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सत्वं कुटिलसंकाशं
करोति शुल्वं त्रिपुटेन कांचनम्।।
*satvam kutilasamkāśam* |
*karoti śulvam tripuṭena kāñcanam* ||
(*RNV*, 7.34-38)

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Zinc ore (rasaka) was stated to impart gold-like colour to copper as well as lead and iron (RNV, 12.50). Preparation of a copper-zinc-lead alloy was described (RNV, 17.70-74).

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Six metals were arranged in the order of increasing rate of corrosion:

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सुवर्ण रजतं ताम्र तीक्ष्ण वंग भुजंगमाः।
लोहकं षड़िधं तच्च यथापूर्वं तदक्षयम्।।
*suvarṇam rajatam tāmra tīkṣṇa vaṅga bhujaṅgamāḥ* |
*lohakam ṣaḍidham tacca yathāpūrvam tadakṣayam* ||
(*RNV*, 7.89-90)

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High reactivity of sulphur with most of the metals was described poetically: ‘There is no such elephant of a metal which cannot be killed by the lion of a sulphur or pyrites’.

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नास्ति तल्लोहमातंगो यन्न गन्धककेशरी।
निहन्यात् गन्धमात्रेण यद्वा माक्षिककेशरी।।
*nāsti tallohamātaṅgo yanna gandhakakeśarī* |
*nihanyāt gandhamātreṇa yadvā mākṣikakeśarī* ||
(*RNV*, 7.142)

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Metals were reported to be ‘killed’ (jārana) by materials like kāsīsa (green vitriol), sauvira (stibnite), sauvarcala (saltpetre), etc. (RNV, 9.2-3).

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Rasārṇava mentioned three kinds of kṣāra or alkali: taṅkaṇa or borax, yavakṣāra (carbonate of potash in the ash of barley) and sarjikā or river bed sodium carbonate/bi-carbonate (5.35-36). Eight mahārasas (RNV, 7.2-3) included srotāñjana which was probably copper/antimony/cobalt sulphide, found on the banks of river and later colloquially known (in Rajasthan) as sohtā.

Iatro-Chemical Texts

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In the words of Ray (1956:158) the iatro-chemical period in India started in the thirteenth century AD after ‘the fantastic and extravagant (alchemical) ideas, impossible of realization, had subsided into something more practical and tangible’. We would end this chapter by mentioning three thirteenth century iatro-chemical texts; in the next chapter we would present the most important text of this category, Rasaratnasamuccaya which belongs to early fourteenth century AD.

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In Rasaprakāśaśudhakara, Yaśodhara described, probably for the first time in India, the preparation of karpūrarasa or calomel. To be made by heating mercury with common salt, alum and borax, calomel or mercuric chloride was recommended as an aphrodisiac and for leprosy.

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Alum from Saurāṣṭra, known as tuvari was popular as mordant for dyes. When slightly yellow, it was known as phullika. The material could ‘kill’ iron.

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Two varieties of rasaka or calamine were known: karavellaka and dardura. The process of extracting zinc from calamine was described; this was almost identical with that noted in Rasaratnasamuccaya. The essence (sattva) of rasaka, that is zinc metal, was a reduction-cum-distillation product like rasa (mercury), and hence the name rasaka. It possessed the lustre of lead.

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तदा सीसोपमं सत्वं पतत्येव न संशयः।

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tadā sīsopamam satvam patatyeva na saṃśayaḥ ।

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The crucible used was like a brinjal mūṣām vṛntākaphalasannibhām. Nāgārjuna’s authority was invoked to proclaim that both mercury as well as zinc salts are supposed to strengthen the body:

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पारदो रसकश्चैव देहलोहकरावुभौ।

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pārado rasakaścaiva dehalohakarāvubhau ।

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Madanāntadeva mentioned in his Rasacintāmaṇi the preparation of calomel, but named this as śvetabhasma instead of karpūrarasa. He referred to an alloy made of bell-metal, silver and cast iron. Copper, made from blue vitriol or tutthaka, was named as tutthaka-sattva or the ‘essence’ of blue vitriol.

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The process of making zinc (kharparasattvapātana) from calamine (kharpara), described in *Rasacintāmaṇi* was similar to the one formulated by Yaśodhara, with one difference. Whereas Yaśodhara hits off the completion of reduction when the flame issuing from the pot ceases to be blue, Madanāntadeva directs that ‘the pot is to be taken out of the furnace, soon as white fumes begin to appear. The crucible is then to be held in an inclined position so that the lead-like essence of calamine drops on the ground’.

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*Rasakalpa*, which is a part and parcel of *Rudrayamala Tantra*, also belonged to the thirteenth century AD. The author has restricted his treatise solely to a description of the metals, minerals, and the process of ‘killing’ them with the agency of various apparatus.

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*Rasakalpa* mentioned *mahārasas*, *uparasas* and *rasas*. It referred to *culikālavaṇa* (sal ammoniac) used as a *vida* for killing gold. There were two kinds of *tāla*, *tālakam dviprakāram syāt godantaḥ pāṭalacchaviḥ* two kinds of *gairika*, one of golden blue, the other red. There were different kinds of *saurāṣṭris* or alums and three kinds of *kāsīsas* (green and other vitriols):

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बहुप्रकारा सौराष्ट्री कासीसं त्रिविधं मतम्।
कासीसं पुष्पकासीसं हीरकासीसमित्यथ।।
*bahuprakārā saurāṣṭrī kāsīsam trividham matam |*
*kāsīsam puṣpakāsīsam hīrakāsīsamityatha ||*

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The vitriols ranging from blue copper sulphate to green ferrous sulphate were variously known as *tutthaka*, *sasyaka* and *kāsīsa*. *Rājāvarta* mentioned as a *rasa* has been translated as lapis lazuli, a rare gem coloured blue; it could actually be a blue copper mineral.

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Processes were described for extraction of copper from *mākṣika* (copper bearing pyrite), and of zinc from calamine involving distillation through *vakranāla* or bent tube. *Vartaloha* was mentioned as an alloy: *vartādyāḥ syustu kṛtrimāḥ*.

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The composition was not mentioned. Later *Rasaratnasamuccaya* (RRS) (5.212) mentioned that *vartaloha* was composed of bronze, copper, brass, iron and lead, and hence also known as *pañcaloha*.

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We would discuss in the next chapter how *RRS* beautifully summarised the diverse technical data in the *Ratna-* and *Rasaśāstra* texts.

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