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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c45.s3: Eight Mahārasas

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c45.s3

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Eight Mahārasas

v2.c45.s3.1

*RRS* has named eight mahārasas: *abhraka* (mica), *vaikrānta*, *mākṣika* (pyrites), *vimala* (iron pyrite), *adrija* (bitumen), *sasyaka* (blue vitriol), *capala* (bismuth or lead or tin ores yielding quick-melting metals) and *rasaka* (zinc ore). These were recommended for ‘collection after identification’ (2.1).

v2.c45.s3.2

Abhraka, tentatively translated as mica, was defined as a class of material which binds mercury, and therefore these materials were probably sulphur-bearing mica-like substances. Abhrakas were classified in *RRS* under four categories depending upon their colours and behaviours when put on fire.

v2.c45.s3.3

Pināka variety of abhraka was described as white and ‘setting free its dalas or folds’ when put on fire:

v2.c45.s3.4

पिनाकं पावकप्तप्तं विमुंचति दलोच्चयम्
*pinākaṃ pāvakottaptaṃ vimuñcati daloccayam*
(*RRS*, 2.5)

v2.c45.s3.5

The material could be vermiculite which indeed swells (due to expansion of water-rich lattice and elimination of water molecules) when put on fire.

v2.c45.s3.6

Nāga variety of abhraka is red and ‘produces hissing sound like that of snake when put on fire’.

v2.c45.s3.7

नागाभ्रं नागवत् पावकं संस्थितम्
*nāgābhraṃ nāgavat pāvakaṃ saṃsthitam*
(*RRS*, 2.6)

v2.c45.s3.8

The material could be red lead or, if the colour is not red, even mica-resembling galena; these produce, on reduction, lead or the metal known as nāga or ahi. Maṇḍūka variety is yellow, bursting into fragments when put on fire. Vajra variety of abhraka is black and does not change when put on fire (2.7-2.8). It was believed that yellow mica could produce gold, and white mica could produce silver through reaction with mercury (RRS, 2.9-2.10). This belief led to elaboration of the procedures for satvapātana (metal-extraction) from abhraka (2.27-2.38).

v2.c45.s3.9

We have already mentioned vaikrānta which was known both as a gem as well as one of the mahārasas. Mākṣika was known to occur in two varieties:

v2.c45.s3.10

माक्षिकं द्विविधो हेममाक्षिक स्तारमाक्षिकः mākṣiko dvividho hemamākṣika stāramākṣikaḥ (RRS, 2.81)

v2.c45.s3.11

Hemamākṣika or gold-coloured mākṣika, occurring around Kānyakubja, Tāptī river, etc., was most probably copper pyrite or chalcopyrite which could be reduced by organic materials such as sneha gavyājya (cow’s ghī or butter-fat) to produce the red metal, copper (2.85-2.89). Tāra mākṣika looked silvery and was probably iron pyrite.

v2.c45.s3.12

Vimala also represented pyrite-group minerals and sulphides. There were hema and tāra varieties as in mākṣika, and these were probably the same as chalcopyrite and pyrite. A third variety kāmsya vimala has been identified as arsenopyrite. Another particular variety, most probably galena, was described (2.96-2.102) as ‘cubic in shape, having angles and facets, brilliant, reducible by borax and charcoal to yield sīsaka-type metal’:

v2.c45.s3.13

वर्तुलः कोणसंयुक्तः . . . षट्प्रस्थकोकिलै धर्मतो विमलः . . . सीससन्भः vartulaḥ koṇasaṃyuktah . . . ṣaṭprasthakokilai dharmāto vimalaḥ . . . sīsasannibhaḥ

v2.c45.s3.14

Śilājatu or bitumen was known to be an exudate from the lower part of the Himālayas. It could be sasatva (with metallic content) or niḥsatva (without any metallic content) (2.109).

v2.c45.s3.15

Sasyaka or blue vitriol was likened to the blue neck of a peacock (2.125). Rājanighaṇṭu commented that sasyaka is a natural material, while tuttha or tutthaka (copper sulphate) is artificially prepared. “In the absence of one, the other may be used”. The chemical identity of the two was not firmly established. Similarly, while describing satvapātana or metal extraction from sasyaka by reduction-heating in a crucible, the identity of the red metal ‘looking like indragopa or coccinella insect’ with copper was guessed but not confidently affirmed (RRS, 2.133-2.134):

v2.c45.s3.16

इन्द्रगोपाकृति चैव सत्वं। ताम्ररूपं सत्वं मुंचति सस्यकम्।। indragopākṛti caiva satvam । tāmrarūpaṃ satvaṃ muñcati sasyakam ।।

v2.c45.s3.17

Capala was defined as a material which melts quickly like *vanga* or tin when put on fire *vaṅgavad dravate vahnau capalastena kīrtitaḥ* (RRS, 2.143) and has six edges, brilliance and heaviness. *Capala* could be yellow, white, red or black. Was the heavy black variety galena, yielding low-melting metal lead? As a matter of fact, *RRS* does refer to *nāgasambhūta capala*, or lead-bearing *capala* (8.41-8.42) and *vaṅgasambhūta capala*, another variety containing tin (8.43-44). Some scholars have claimed that a third variety of *capala* contained bismuth.

v2.c45.s3.18

Details about *rasaka* or zinc blende would be mentioned later in connection with zinc metallurgy.

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