History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, Incorporating the History of Hindu Chemistry by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray c27.1

c27.1

In the Hindu Materia Medica the mineral kingdom is broadly divided into the *rasas*, the *uparasas*, the *ratnas* (gems) and the *lohas* (metals). The term *rasa* is in general reserved for mercury, though it is equally applicable to a mineral or metallic salt. In the oldest medical works, e g the Charaka and the Susruta, *rasa* has the literal meaning of juice or fluid of the body, which, according to the notions of humoral pathology, engenders blood, serum, sweat, etc *Rasakriya* in the Susruta means fluid extract or concentrated decoction. As mercurial and metallic preparations gradually came into vogue and even began to supplant the vegetable drugs, the term *rasa* began to be substituted for quicksilver on account of its semi-fluid character and its supposed miraculous therapeutical action on the juices or humours of the body In the Bhavaprakasa we find *rasa* used in a twofold sense,—ancient and comparatively modern.