Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c46.s2.5

v2.c46.s2.5

In the meantime, the postulate about the atomic constitution of matter, made by Kaṇāda, was being refined by the followers of the *Vaiśeṣika*, Buddhist and Jain philosophies. Yet there was little correlation between the atomic theories (speculative in nature) and the *rasaśāstra* experiments related to distillation, digestion, reduction, oxidation, sulfidisation, etc. During the Tāntric period we obtain the concept of *sattva/satva* denoting metallic essence, the metal extracted from a mineral or ore. There are references to ‘mercury from mercuric sulphide’, ‘copper from copper sulphate’ etc., but no categorical statement to the effect that such an extracted metal is indeed the same as the variety available in native state or obtainable from another source. Iatro-chemistry in ancient India fell short of the European breakthrough in Daltonian Chemistry, and yet by the thirteenth century it had outgrown the earlier alchemical extravaganza.