Essay name: Minerals and Metals in Sanskrit literature
Author:
Sulekha Biswas
Affiliation: Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj University / Department of Sanskrit
This essay studies the presence of Minerals and Metals in Sanskrit literature over three millennia, from the Rigveda to Rasaratna-Samuccaya. It establishes that ancient Indians were knowledgeable about various minerals and metallurgy prior to the Harappan era, with literary references starting in the Rgveda.
Abstract
2 (of 3)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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Taxila. Kautiliya Arthasastra describes the Mauryan
political economy, the emergence of a large state, the
increasing role of mines in the state economy, a large
variety of gems constituting the elements of international
trade and the diversity of alloys, coins and ornaments.
(Chapter v).
Chapter VI in this thesis examines the references
to minerals and metals in the epic Mahabharata which must
have been compiled in the present form over several
centuries.
2.
A millennium of the Ratnasastra texts is the
subject-matter of Chapter VII, in which the large variety
of gems mentioned in the Sanskrit texts have been discussed
from the modern scientific standpoint. Similarly, the
Rasasastra texts dealing with chemical and metallic trans-
formations, which evolved over centuries, have been
comprehensively discussed in Chapter VIII.
Whereas Rasasastra or Indian alchemy indulged in an
extravaganza of wild concepts such as conversion of base
metals to gold, discovering a drug for immortality and so
on, the subsequent literatures on iatrochemistry became.
more realistic.
Rasa-Ratna-Samuccaya of the early 14th
century A.D. period, is a pinnacle of Indian iatrochemistry
and discussed in our penultimate Chapter IX.
