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.
Chapter 9 - The Rasaratna-samuccaya鈥攁 pinnacle in the Indian iatro-chemistry
8 (of 31)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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IX-8
Capala was defined as a material which melts quickly
like vanga or tin when put on fire
啶掂啶掂う啷� 啶︵啶班さ啶む 啶� 啶氞お啶侧ぐ啶膏啶� 啶曕啶班啶むた啶む
啶掂す啷嵿え啷�
( [vagavad dravate va capalarasena k墨rtita岣�
vahnau
(] RRS 2.143)
and has six edges, brilliance and heaviness. Capala could be
yellow, white, red or black. Was the heavy black variety galena,
yielding low-melting metal lead? As a matter of fact, RRS does.
refer to nagasambh奴ta capala, or lead-bearing capala (8.41-8.42)
and vangasambhuta capala, another variety containing tin
(8.43-44). Some scholars have claimed that a third variety of
capala contained bismuth.
Details about rasaka or zinc blende would be mentioned
later in connection with zinc metallurgy.
Uparasa Materials
Eight drugs of uparasa group, useful in paradakarma or
fixation of mercury, were stated to be: gandh膩sma or gandhaka
(sulphur), gairi (red ochre),K盲sisa (ferrous sulphate). K盲nksi
(alum),t膩la (orpiment), sila (realgar), a帽jana (collyrium) and
Kankustha (rhubarb) (RRS 3.1).
Four varieties of sulphur were known: red or
sukacancunibha, yellow or sukapiccha, white variety, good for
reaction with iron, and black sulphur which may be used as an
anti-bacterial medicine. Sulphur was purified by boiling or
melting in milk and filtration (3-20-3.22).
