Copper in Ancient India c10.s5.2

c10.s5.2

Prior to this, brass must have been manufactured from calamine as in Europe. We have a recipe in Rasaratnākar (7th century) for the conversion of copper into a gold-like substance meaning evidently brass, by heating copper, calamine and organic substances in covered crucibles.¹ This recipe is quoted almost bodily in the alchemical work Rasāranva (12th century). The organic substances on being heated in covered crucibles evidently supplied the carbon necessary for the reduction of calamine.