History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c17.7

c17.7

Reference may also be made to the discovery of a Tantra belonging to the extinct school of Kubjikamata and named Kubjikatantra in the valuable manuscript collections of the Maharaja of Nepal. This was written in Gupta character and copied about the sixth century A.D. In one place of this Tantra we come across a passage in which Siva himself speaks of *parada* (mercury) as his generative principle and eulogises its efficacy when killed six times. In this Tantra we find allusions to the transmutation of copper into gold with the aid of mercury, as also to other alchemical processes. Thus, Tantric mysticism with alchemy as an integral part was cultivated even much earlier than 700 A.D., which we have fixed here as the lower limit of the Tantric Period.