Internet Archiveopen access

A history of Hindu chemistry from the earliest times to the middle of the sixteenth century, A.D. : with Sanskrit texts, variants, translation and illustrations

HISTORY OF HINDU CHEMISTRY

A

HISTORY OF HINDU CHFMISTRY

FROM

THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY A. D.

SANSKRIT TEXTS, VARIANTS, TRANSLATION AND ILLUSTRATIONS

: _BY

PRAPHULLA CHANDRA RKY D, Sc.,

Professor of Chemistry, Presidency College, Calcutta

VOL. I

Second Edition : Revised and Enlarged Calcutta

THE BENGAL CHEMICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL WORKS, LIMITED

1903

CALCUTTA

PRINTED BY B, C, SANYAL,

AT THE BENGAL CHEMICAL STEAM PRINTING WORKS gi, Upper Circular Road

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Since the days of Sir W. Jones. Sanskrit litera- ture, in almost every department, has been zealous- ly ransacked by scholars, both European and Indian. As the results of their labours we are now in poss- ession of ample facts and data, which enable us to from some idea of the knowledge of the Hindus of old in the fields of Philosophy and Mathematics in- cluding Astronomy, Arthmetic, Algebra, Trigono- metry and Geometry. Even Medicine has re- ceived some share of attention. Wilson in a se- ries of essays published in the Oriental Magazine (1823), Royle in his Antiquity of Hindu Medic ne (1837), and Wise in his commentary on the Hindu System of Medicine (1845), were amongst the first to bring to the notice of the European world the contents of the ancient medical works of the Hin- dus, and recently the Thakur Sahib of Gondal has added his quota. These contributions are, how- ever, of a fragmentary nature. A comprehensive history of Hindu medicine has yet to be written.

270073

Materia Medica has also found, in Udoy Chand Dutt, an able exponent. One branch has, however, up till this time, remained entirely neglected— namely, Chemistry. Indeed, it may be assumed that on accent of its complex and technical nature it has hitherto repelled investigators.

The progress of chemical knowledge among the ancient nations has always had a fascination for me. The classical works of Thomson, Hoefer and Kopp have been my favourite companions for the last twelve years and more. In the course of my studies in this held I was naturally led to an inquiry into the exact position which India occu- pies therein, and with this view I undertook a sys- tematic examination, from the chemical standpoint, of the Charaka, the Susruta and the various stan- dard works of the Ayurvedic and latro-chemical Periods, which have escaped the ravages of time. It was at this stage that I was brought into communi- cation with M. Berthelot some five years ago — a circumstance which has proved to be a turning- point, if I may so say, in my career as a student of the history of chemistry. The illustrious French savant, the Doyen of the chemical world, who has done more than any other person to clear up the sources and trace the progress of chemical science in the West, expressed a strong desire to know all

[ 3 ]

about the contributions of the Hindus/* and even went the length of making a personal appeal to me to help him with information on the subject. In response to his sacred call I submitted to him, in 1898, a short monograph on Indian alchemy; it was based chiefly on Rasendrasara Samgraha, a work which I have since then found to be of minor im- portance and not calculated to throw much light on the vexed question as to the origin of the Hindu Chemistry. M. Berthelot not only did me the ho- nour of reviewing it at lengtht but very kindly pre- sented me with a complete set of his monumental work, in three volumes, on the chemistry of the

*"Cependant il serait necessaire d'examiner certains docu- ments qui m'ont ete recemment signales par une lettre de Ray, professeur a Presidency College (Calcutta). D'apres ce savant, il existe des traitesd'alchimie, ecrits en Sanscrit, remontant an xine siecle, et qui renferment des preceptes pour preparer les sulfures de mercure noir et rouge et le calomel employes comme medica- ments. Ces indications s'accordent avec celles desalchimistesarabes signalees plus haut. II est a desirer que ces traites soient soumis a une etude approfondie, pour, en determiner 1'origine, probable- ment attribuable a une tradition persane ou nestorienne."-

JOURXAL DES SAVANTS, Oct., 1897.

-\-" Materianx pou\ un chapitre neglige de Vhistoire de la Chi- mil' on contributions ct V Alchimie indienne (Memorie manuscrit de 4.1 PaRes). Par Prafulla Chandra Ray, professeur a Presidency College, Calcutta," — Vide JOURNAL DKS SAVANTS, April' 1898

[ 4 ]

Middle Ages, dealing chiefly with the Arabic and Syrian contributions on the subject, the very exis- tence of which I was not till then aware of. On perusing the contents of these works I 'was filled with the ambition of supplementing them with one on Hindu Chemistry. Although I have written all along under the inspiration of a mastermind, it is not for c. moment pretended that my humble pro- duction will at all make an approach to the exem- plar set before my eyes.

When I first drew up the scheme of the present work, I had deluded myself with the hope of finish- ing the study of all the available literature on the subject before I took to writing. But I soon found that the task was one of vast nlagnitude. Some of my friends, whose judgment is entitled to weight, advised me under the circumstances, to curtail the scope of the work as originally planned out, and present a first instalment of it in its necessarily de- fective and imperfect shape (see Introduction, p. Ixxxiv), reserving for a subsequent volume the work- ing-up of the materials which are accumulating from time to time. In the present volume only one or two representative works of the Tanric and latro-chemical Periods have been noticed at length.

As regards the transliteration, I have not rigid- ly adhered to any particular system, but, in the

[ 5 ]

main, I have followed that of the Sacred Books of the East.

Before concluding, I must acknowledge the valu- able assistance I have receivedJrom Pandit Nava- kanta Kavibhusa//a with whom I have toiled through many an obscure passage of the Mss.. of the Tantras. His sound knowledge of the Aviir-

vedas has also been of much help to me.

#*;•#'*

And now it only remains for me to discharge the grateful duty of expressing my thanks to the Government of Bengal, which at the instance of Mr. Alexander Pedler, F. R. S., Director of Public Ins- truction, placed a liberal grant at my disposal to enable me to meet various incidental expences, chiefly in the matter of collecting rare Mss.

PRESIDENCY COLLEGE : ")

P. C. RA'Y.

Calcutta, May isi, 1902. )

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A comparatively limited number of copies was printed in the first edition as it was feared that owing to its technical nature the work would appeal only to a select circle of readers. The exceedingly favourable reception accorded to it not only by the scientists and orientalists but also by the public in general both in Europe and in India has necessitated the bringing-out of a second edition. Some material additions have been made to the historical portion of the Introduction, throw- ing further light on the independent origin of the Hindu system of medicine and its priority to that of the Greeks.

M. Berthelot, in the course of a lengthy and appreciative review in the "Journal des Savants;" Jan. 1903, expresses his regret at the absence of " any thing which wrould remind us of the system- atic treatises of Zosimus and of the Greco-Egyptians" — a regret which will be shared in by every student of Hindu chemistry. But even the sable cloud is not without its silver lining. I hope, however, to deal with the theories underlying Hindu chemistry in the second volume. For the present, I have to

[ 7 ]

content myself with the pronouncement of my res- pected and learned friend, Mr. Brajendranatha Seal Principal, Maharaja's College, Kuch Behar, whose vast acquaintance with and comprehensive grasp of, the literature of the East and the West, entitles him to speak with authority on the subject. Says Mr. Seal in his plea for our University " striking out a line of communication with the organisations of oriental learning."-

l( Let us not superciliously dismiss these studies as ' learned lumber.' The Astronomy and Ma- thematics were not less advanced than those of Tycho Brahe, Cardan and Fermat ; the anatomv was equal to that of Vesalius, the Hindu logic and methodology more advanced than that of Ramus, and equal on the whole to Bacon's ; the physico-chemical theories as to combustion, heat, chemical affinity, clearer, more rational, and more original than those of Van Helmont or Stahl ; and the Grammar, whether of Sanskrit or Prakrit, the most scientific and comprehensive in the world before Bopp, Rask and Grimm.''

PRESIDENCY COLLEGE : P. C. RAY.

January i , 1904.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I

ALCHEMICAL IDEAS ix THE VEDAS

CHAPTER II

THE AYURVEDIC PERIOD . . .

CHAPTER III

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD ... . .

CHAPTER IV

THE TANTRIC PERIOD ....

. CHAPTER V

THE IATRO-CHEMICAL PERIOD ...... xc

CHAPTER VI

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE ARABIANS TO INDIA .... cvii

THE AYURVEDIC PERIOD

(From t/ie pre- Buddhistic Era to circa 800 A. D.)

CHAPTER I

THE CONSTITUTION AND PROPERTIES OF MATTER : THE ATOMIC THEORY

PAGE

Tanmatra or Particles — Five Elements — Animated Atom Grosser Body — Earth — Water — Light — Conception of the

ai

CONTENTS

PAGE

Simple, Binary, Tertiary and Quaternary Atoms — Quality of the Substance viz., Colour, Savour, etc. — Gravitation — Levity — Fluidity — Viscidity — Sound — Theory of the Pro- pagation of Sound — Awus or Atoms — Dates of the Philo- sophical Sutras — The Question of Priority .... i

CHAPTER II

CHEMISTRY IN THE CHARAKA AND THE SUSRUTA

The Charaka

The Tastes — The Metals and their Calces — A Discourse on the Tastes— their Relationship to the five Primal Ele- ments— the Nature of the Alkali — The Five Kinds of Salts — Minerals for External Application — The Eight Varieties of Urine — Preparation of Kshara (Alkali) — Pill Iron Compound — A Collyrium — Powder of Pearl Compound — Iron, Gold and Silver Tonics — Rasayana Defined 24

The Susruta

Preparation and Use of Alkalies and Alkaline Caustics — Lixiviation of the Ashes — Rendering the Alkali Caustic — How to Store up the Alkali — Characteristics of the Good and the Bad Alkali— Why the Acid Neutralises the Alkali- Mild and Caustic Alkalies — Description of Blood — On the Collection of Drugs — The Salts — The Alkalies — Internal use of Lead and Tin — Minerals for External Application — Roasting of Iron and other Metals so as to Render them Fit for Internal Administration — The Origin of Bitumen — Iron Pyrites — Gold Dust — The Poisons — Use of Mer- cury— Note on the Metals and their Salts .... 32

CONTENTS

CHAPTER III CHEMISTRY IN THE BOWER Ms.

PAGE

The Alkalies — Fumes of Horn — Ksharataila — Formula for Hair-Dye— Rasayana Defined— The Doctrine of Bitu- men — A Linctus — Formulae for Eye-ointment ... 52

CHEPTER IV CHEMISTRY IN THE VAGBHATA

Preparations of Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron and Lead — Preparation of Alkali and Caustic Alkali — Use of Mercury . 55

THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

(From 800 A. D. to circa i ion A. D.j

CHEMISTRY IN THE SIDDHA YOGA OF VRINDA AND CHAKRAPANT

CHAPTER I

\'i'i>i(1a (circa 900 A. D.)

Preparations in which Sulphide of Copper and y^thiops Mineral Figure — A collyruim — A process of Killing Iron . 58

CHAPTER II

CJiakrapdni (Circa 1060 A. D.}

BLACK SULPHIDE OF MERCURY (KAJJALI) OR .^ETHIOPS MINERAL

Tamrayoga (lit. Powder of Copper Compound) — Process of Killing Iron — Mandura or Rust of Iron — Recipe for a Soap to be used as a Depilatory — Preparation of Caustic Alkali 61

CONTENTS

THE TANTRIC PERIOD

(From i TOO A. D. to circa 1300 A. D)

CHAPTER I CHEMISTRY IN RASARNAVA

PAGE

Extracts from Book IV — On Apparatus and the Colour of Flames — Dola Yantram — An Apparatus for Killing Metals — Garbha Yantram — Efficacy of the Apparatus — Hawsapaka Yantram— Crucibles — Colour of Flames — Tests of a Pure Metal — Kosh/i Apparatus — Colophon to Chapter

IV — The Alkalies The Maharasas Copper from the

Pyrites — Brass from Calmine and Copper Mistaken for Gold — Extraction of Zinc from Calmine — Saurashtri — The Metals — The Killing of Metals — Purification of Quicksilver — Killing of Mercury — Killing of Gold — Tests for Killed Mercury — Colouring of Metals 64.

THE IATRO-CHEMICAL PERIOD

(From ijoo A. D. to circa 1550 A. D.)

CHAPTER I CHEMISTRY IN RASARATNASAMUCHCHAYA

Colophon The Rasas Abhra Vaikranta Copper

Pyrites — Vimala — Silajatu — Sasyaka — Extraction of Copper — Chapala — Rasaka — Extraction of Zinc — The Uparasas or Inferior Rasas — Sulphur — Gairika — Kasisa — Tuvari — Talaka — Manassila — The An j anas — The Common Rasas — Navasara and other Rasas — The Gems — Vajram — General Process of Reducing Gems to Ashes — On Metals — Gold — Silver — Copper— Iron— -Tin— Lead Brass Bell-Metal, &c— Ini-

CONTENTS

PAGE

tiation into Discipleship — On the Laboratory — On Technical Terms — Tests for Killed Iron — Antimony from Stibnite —

Certain Other Technical Terms On Apparatus (the

Yantras) Dola Yantram Svedani Yantram Patana

Yantram — Adhaspatana Yantram — Dheki Yantram — Valuka Yantram (Sand-bath) — Lavana Yantram — Nalika Yantram —

Tiryakpatana Yantram Vidyadhara Yantram Dhupa

Yantram — On the Ingredients for Crucibles, &c. — W/ntaka Crucible — Calcination, Roasting, &c. — The Metals — The Salts— The Alkalies— The Oils— The Fats— The Urines— The Acids — The Earth — The Poisons — The Solvents — On the Purification of Mercury — Fixation of Mercury — Incineration

of Mercury .76

NOTES ON THE MINERALS . . . 133 Alum and Green Vitirol 146

ON METALS AND METALLURGY 152

Zinc 156

De la formation des metanx - . . . . .162

ON THE ESSENCE OF MINERALS ... 169

Calamine — The Vitriols — Blue Vitriol . . 169-171

ON GUNPOWDER, SALTPETRE AND THE MINERAL ACIDS

Gunpowder — Saltpetre — Mineral Acids . . .174

KNOWLEDGE OF TECHNICAL ARTS AND DECLINE OF SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT 190

THE WASTAGE OF GOLD IN THE COURSE OF PREPARING JEWELRY IN BENGAL

Soldering — Filing and Cutting — The Chemical Opera- tions of the Goldsmith .- Cleansing, Colouring and Polishing

3.2

CONTENTS

PAGE

— The Processes of the Rungwala — Chemical Explanation

— The Restorative Processes The Neharwala The

Jamakwafe— Conclusion . . . . .198

Note on the Salts ..... 243

Note on the Killing of Metals . . . . 246-

On the Hindu Method of Manufacturing Calomel — • The Hindu and Japanese Methods Compared — The Explana- tion of the Reactions Involved .... 250-

APPENDIX I

ANALYSIS OF SOME PREPARATIONS USED IN THE HINDU MEDICINE

^thiops Mineral — Sulphide of Copper — Calomel — Rust of iron — Achyranthes aspera — Trianthema monogyna . 26 B

APPENDIX II

Illustrations ..... 269-284.

INDEX

Index of Proper Names .... 287-295

Index of Subjects .... 296-313

SANSKRIT TEXTS . . . i 70

Erratum : Intro., p. civ, the 3 lines from the bottom upwards are to be deleted

Introduction

Alchemical Ideas in the Vedas

IN tracing the progress of chemical know- ledge among the civilized

Dawn of Hindu

Alchemy. nations of old, one always

finds it intimately associated with medicinal preparations, metallurgical operations, the technical arts and the belief in the transmu- tation of metals. In India, more so than in Europe, chemistry has, however, been evolved chiefly as a handmaid of medicine ; and, some- what later on, as an adjunct of the Tantric cult. The efficacy of the drug alone was by no means considered sufficient unless backed by the kindly interposition of the deities. Thus in the ^sgveda we find the Asvins, the divine physicians, invoked, who give sight to the blind and make the lame walk. These twin gods have many points in common with the Dioskouroi of Greek mythology. One very

curious myth is that of the maiden Vispala who, having had her leg cut off in some con- flict, was at once furnished by the Asvins with an iron limb.

The higher gods of the ^z'gveda are al- most entirely personifications of the elements and the other natural phenomena, such as the fire and the wind, the sun and the dawn. But we often find also herbs and plants en- dowed with potent and active properties, raised to the dignities of the gods and ad- dressed as such. The Soma plant is an object of particular adoration and the Vedic worshippers are in ecstacy over the exhilarat- ing effects of the fermented juice expressed from it. * The Soma rasa ( juice ) began even to be regarded as the arrWta ; this im- mortal draught, allied to the Greek ambrosia, is " the stimulant which conferred immortality upon the gods ... it is medicine for a sick man and the god Soma heals whatever is

i) See Eggeling's Intro, to" Satapatha Brahmawa." Pt. n, pp. i et seg. also Roth ; Ueber den Soma ; " Zeit. deut. morg. Ges." XXXV. pp. 680-692 ; also ibid, XXXVIII. 134-139 : Wo wachst der Soma ? And Windischmann : Ueber den Somacultus der

at 111

sick." It will be. seen later on that in the Soma rasa and its attributes we have the dawn of Hindu Alchemy (Vide p. 79).

Other plants were likewise invoked as divinities. Thus one entire hymn is [devoted to the praise of plants (oshadhi) alone, mainly with regard to their healing powers. J

Arier : Abhand. d. Munch. AK. d. Wiss. IV. B. Abh. 2. (i) One or two typical hymns may be quoted here : —

am

Sayawa's commentary to the above is : —

I f^ff *T*i

ft

: t

IV

Again, in another hymn we read : ' " O King Varu/za ! a hundred and a thousand medicinal drugs are thine."

It is in the " Atharva-veda " however, that plants and vegetable products in general are fully recognised as helpful agents in the treat- ment of diseases, though their use is invari- ably associated with the employment of charms, spells, and incantations. Thus the plant apamarga ( achy r ant hes aspera) , which still occupies a prominent place in the Hindu system of medicine as a di-uretic and laxative etc., is invoked as the " mistress of remedies" (IV. 17, i.) and " sole ruler overall plants." In another hymn the Soma plant is thus referred to :—

' The strength of this amrz'ta (ambrosia) do we give this man to drink. Moreover, I prepare a remedy, that he may live a hundred years !"

Again, " as many (plants), as the human physicians know to contain a remedy, so many, endowed with every healing quality, do I apply

to thee !" Here is a spell for the cure of leprosy by means of a dark-coloured plant :—

Born in the night art thou, O herb,

Dark-coloured, sable, black of hue :

Rich-tinted, tinge this leprosy,

And stain away its spots of grey ! (1.23,1).

— Macdonell

There is also a distinct reference to a remedy for promoting the growth of hair.

" As a goddess upon the goddess earth thou wast born, O plant ! We dig thee up, O nitatni, that thou mayest strengthen (the growth) of the hair.

" Strengthen the (old hair), beget the new ! That which has come forth render more luxurious !" VI. 136. 1-2.

Although in the Vedic age caste as a hereditary system did not

The Healing Arts •> J

differentiated. exist, the healing arts had

evidently acquired sufficient importance to be pursued by particular members of the patriar- chal families. Thus with that charming sim-

(i) Bloomfield : " Hymns of the Atharva-veda " pp. 43-44.

VI

plicity which is the characteristic beauty of the ^z'gveda, one ^z'shi says pathetically of himself :

" Behold I am a composer of hymns, my father is a physician, my mother grinds corn on stone. We are all engaged in different occupations x (IX. 112, 3),

" Princes like Divodasa, and bards and leaders of the tribe of the Angiras, adminis- tered medicines and gloried in effecting cures. A skilled physician is distinctly defined as one who lives in a place abounding with medicinal plants, and who assiduously devotes his time to the acquisition of knowledge V

Thus not only in the Atharvan but even in the A'z'k, we can trace the

1 he earlist literary

record of Indian earliest literary record of Indian

Medicine.

Medicine.

The " Atharva-veda " deals chiefly with sorcery, witch-craft and demonology. There are deadly imprecations against evil-doers •

(1) R. C. Dutt : "Civilisation in ancient India," p. 65 (Calc. ed.)

(2) Introduction to ''As/angalm'daya" of Vagbhate, by Anna Morsvar Kunte, B. A., M. D., p. 2.

V1V

magical incantations for bringing about ruin, death, dementation and stupefaction of one's adversaries ; and charms intended to secure the love of women through the potency of various herbs. Some of them are of hostile character, being meant to injure rivals. The picture here presented has its counterpart in the ancient Egyptians, who were noted for their magical lore to which the Greeks were no less attached. There is a close resem- blance between the contents of the A. V. and those of the Papyrus of Leyden in some es- sential features. In the latter also there is an intermixture of magic, astrology, alchemy as well as recipes for love philters. *

The A. V., on account of its frequent calling- in-aid of super-natural agencies fonselfish and malevolent purposes, has not geneVally been accorded the canonical sanctity of the Vedic Triad — The fiik, the Yajus and the Saman ; the very authority of the fourth Veda as a

(i) The reader may compare this portion with Berthelot's "Les Origines de 1' Alchimie," pp. 81-83.

Vlll

scripture has been questioned in the several law-books of the Apastamba, the Visrmu, the Yajfiavalkya and the Manu schools, and the practices it sanctions strongly condemned.

As Hindu medicine has seldom been able to shake itself completely free from the influ- ence of magic and ^alchemy as auxiliaries, physicians, as practicers of the " black art," have been given an inferior position in the legal treatises. The Mahabharata, reflecting the spirit of the above law-books, regards the physicians as impure. In spite of this " the Atharvan retains in a measure its place by virtue of its profound hold upon popular beliefs, because the Atharvan performs, especially for the king, inestimable services in the injury and overthrow of enemies."1

In the A. V., the hymns for the cure of

Rasa ana or Ai diseases and possession by

chemy. demons of disease are known

as " bhaishajyani, ' while those which have for

(i) Bloomfield's " Hymns of the Atharva-veda " : — Introduc- tion, p. XLVI.

IX

their object the securing of long life and health are known as " ayushya/n " — a term which later on gave p!ace to rasayana, the Sans- \ krit equivalent of alchemy (see p. 80). We shall quote two under the latter heading as invocations to pearl and its shell and gold res- pectively. " Born in the heavens, born in the sea, brought on from the river (Sindhu), this shell, born _of gpjd, is our life-prolonging amulet."

" The bone of the gods turned into pearl; that, animated, dwells in waters. That do I fasten upon thee unto life, lustre, strength, longevity, unto a life lasting a hundred autumns. May the (amulet) of pearl protect thee ! "

"The gold which is born from fire,J the im->, mortal, they bestowed upon the mortals. He who knows this deserves it : of old age dies he who wears it."

" The gold, (endowed by) the sun with beautiful colour, which the men of yore, rich in descendants, did desire, may it gleaming

d) Among the five kinds of gold referred to in the "Rasaratna- amuchchaya"(p- 10 5 3fT3*-'ft (born from fire) is one.

envelop thee in lustre ! Long-lived becomes he who wears it ! "

While gold is regarded as the elixir of life, lead is looked upon as the dispeller of sorcery: " To the lead Varu^a gives blessing, to the lead Agni gives help. Indra gave me the lead ; unfailingly it dispels sorcery.'"

It is of interest to note the alchemical notions which had gathered round gold and lead a at the time of the A. V.

To the student of Hindu medicine and al- chemy, the A. V. is thus of special interest as the earliest repository of information *on the subject.

(1) The quotations are from Bloomfield's A. V. pp. 62-65.

(2) In the alchemy of the West, lead, as is well known, is asso- ciated not with beneficient but "Saturnine" influence.

CR&PTVm II

The Ayurvedic Period

We now alight upon a period when we

The Hindu system find the Hind^ System of

i^eTanT^Tr^ng^d medicine methodised and ar- on a rational basis. ranged on a rational basis, with a scientific terminology.

The two great works of this period are the Charaka and the Somita. In them we find the study of the subject to have made a distinct advance and to have been evolved out of the chaotic state it was in during the Vedic period. Of the two, the Charaka is by far the more ancient. 1

There must have been -a wide gap be-

of

The Charaka and

the siwruta. an^ that of ^g Charaka— an

interval of probably a thousand years or more,

(i) Cf. "The theological doctrine of the nature of disease indi- cated its means of cure. For Hippocrates was reserved -the great glory of destroying them both, replacing them by more practical and

Xll

In the latter the humoral pathology is fully developed, the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases described at length, and an elaborate mode of classification adopted. We have seen above that the physicians were assigned rather an inferior status in soci- ety ; the healing art was, in fact, never recognised as a division of the Vedas.1 Still the claims of the indispensable science of medicine, which can be distinctly traced to the A. V., could not altogether be ignored, and ultimately a compromise was arrived at. In the Charaka itself the Science of Life

material ideas, and, from the votive tablets, traditions, and other sources, together with his own admirable observations, compiling a bodv of medicine- The necessary consequence of his great success was the separation of the pursuits of the physician from those of the priest. Not that so great a revolution, implying the diversion of profitable gains from the ancient channel, could have been accomplished without a struggle, We should reverence the memory of Hippocrates for the complete manner in which he effected that object." — Draper's " Hist, of the Intellect. Dev. in Europe/' I. p. 393 (ed. 1896). The services rendered by Charaka, Su.mita and their predecessors were equally valuable.

(r) The six limbs or divisions of the Vedas are siksha (phon- etics), kal pa (ceremonial), vyakarawa (grammar), nirukta (etymolo- gy), chhandas (metre) and jyotisha (astronomy).

Xlll

( Avurveda) is regarded as a secondary or sub- sidiary branch (updnga) of the Atharvan and as a direct revelation of the gods (Siitra : Ch. XXX. 8-9).

The Somita even goes a step further and asserts that the self-existent (Brahma) crea- ted Ayurveda, as an updnga of the Atharvan (siitra: i. 3.)

We shall now concern ourselves with find- ing the time of Charaka within

The age of Charaka.

approximate limits. The task is not a light one, and it is one of the most abstruse questions of Indian chronology.

M. Sylvain Levi has recently unearthed from the Chinese Tripitaka the name of a phy- sician named Charaka, who was attached as spiritual guide to the Indo-Scythian King Kanishka, who reigned in the second century A. D. The French Orientalist would have this Charaka as the author of the famous Hindu medical work, specially as it would offer an easy explanation of the supposed Greek influence discernible in it.

XIV

' Les Elements traditionnels mis en ceuvre par les conteurs peuvent se re'sumer . ainsi : Je roi devaputra Kanishka, de la race des Kushawas, regne sur les Yuetchi, sept cents ans apres le Nirvana ; il est assiste de ministers e'minents, nommes Devadharma et Mazfhara. Le bodhisattva Asvaghosha est son conseiller spirituel ; Tillustre medecin, Charaka est attache a sa personne." *""#...'"#•••#

" La mention de Charaka est la premiere indi- cation positive obtenue sur -la date du savant praticien qui dispute a Su.yruta la gloire d'avoir fonde la science m^dicale dans 1'Inde. Les influences grecques qu'on avait cru reconnaitre dans les doctrines de Charaka s'expliquent aise'- ment, s'il est vrai que ce grand me'decin vivait au temps et a la cour des Indo-Scythes, alors que 1'hellenisme semblait pene'trer en vainqueur dans la vieille civilisation brahmanique."

"Journ. Asiatique" (1896), T. VIII. pp. 447-51

We confess we are by no means convinced of M. Levi's theory. If we are to go by name alone, we can claim a still higher anti- quity for our author. The appellation of Charaka occurs in Vedic literature as a patro- nymic ; in short, Pamni felt it necessary to

XV

compose a special siitra for deriving the " Charaka's " i.e. the followers of Charaka. ' Then again, Patanjali, who is now generally admitted to have lived in the second century B. C., is known to have written a commentary on the medical work of Charaka, thus further proving the antiquity of our author ; 2 and both Chakrapam and Bhoja agree in alluding to him as the redactor of Charaka. 3 Indeed; in such matters we would do well to set store by native traditions. It would be be- side our purpose, however, to enter into any lengthy discussion on the grounds on which we are inclined to place Charaka in the prejBuddhistic era, but we shall summarise below the salient points.

(0 *re^3nipM 4- 3- 107.

(2) *HTft 1W *3»ft*!

I ' Quoted

in the "Laghu Manjusha" of Nagesa Bhatta.

(3) qTc!^-*llT«TSI-^T^J?fa^ffi: I

^sfr^T^-^i^^^Tiif ^sf^qcrt «ro: it

Vide salutation in the commentary named on the Charaka by Chakrapam,

XVI

In the handling of the subject-matter the Evidence based Charaka is not so systematic

upon the handling of 10 i i i

the subject-matter, as the bumtta, but indulges in random, hap-hazard and irrelevant discour- ses, which make the reader often lose the thread of the main narrative. The author, whenever he has an opportunity, boldly and with evident relish, launches into meta- physical disquisitions, which, he believes, make up for lack of experiments and obser- vations. J In this respect the Sumita is far more scientific than the Charaka. The Nyaya and the Vai^e&hika systems of phi- losophy, which have been interwoven into the body of the text, again remind us of a stage when they were more or less in a state of flux, but had not crystallised into the well-defined form and shape of the sutras in which they have come down to us-this also

(i) 'this has given ample scope to a recent commentator, the late Kaviraja Gangadhara Kaviratna, who in his surpasses Charaka himself in philosophical dissertations.

XV11

goes towards proving the high antiquity of the Charaka. x

Again, only Vedic^ gods and mantras figure in the Charaka, not a

Absence of Paura-

nic mythology trace of Pauramc mythology

being discernible in it. 2 Charaka follows closely the Vedic authority 8 in counting the number of bones in the human body ; the

(1) The Nyaya of Gotama enumerates 16 padarthas (cate- gories), while Charaka under his (medical) disputation, an^*ji?r, mentions 44 categories (Vide Vimana. Ch. VIII. 22., also A. C. Kaviratna's Eng. trans, pp. 564-65). Bodas in his learned Intro- duction to the Tarkasawgraha of Annawbha^a (pp. 12-14) places the aphorisms of Gotama and Kawada in the period between 400 B. C. to 500 A. D.

(2) The names of Krishna and Vasudeva occur in a salutation in the supplement added by Dridhava\:i. Chikitsita. Ch. 21. 92-93. ed. Gangadhara). But Krzswa-worship was in vogue at the time of Panini ; 4. 3. 98. See also Lassen's Alterthumskunde I. p. 648. Biihler also points out that " the earlier history of the purawas, which as yet is a mystery, will only be cleared up when a real history of the orthodox Hindu sects, especially of the Sivites and Vishwuites, has been written. It will, then, probably become apparent that the origin of these sects reaches back far beyond the rise of Buddhism and Jainism." — Intro, to "Apastamba," &c. p. XXIX..

(3) Namely 360 ; Sarira. Ch. VII, 5. According to the Insti- tutes of Vishnu " it (the human frame) is kept together by three

2

xvin

limit of childhood he takes to be thirty years — quite in keeping with the conception of the heroic age.

It should, however, be borne in mind that the Charaka, as we now possess it, can by no means lay claim to be the first compre- hensive and systematic treatise on Hindu medicine, it represents rather a more or less final development of the subject, just as the elaborate grammar of Pamni is based upon some twenty previous works of his predeces- sors, notably of Yaska, 5akalya, Sakatayana, Gargya and others.

The above has its parallel in the history of Greek medicine anterior to the time of Hippocrates. As Draper observes :

" Of the works attributed to Hippocrates, many

Writings of Hip- are doubtless the production of

pocrates. his family, his descendants, or his

pupils. The inducements to literary forgery in the

times of the Ptolemies, who paid very high prices

hundred and sixty bones" (XCVI. 55). This has been adduced by Jolly as a " reason in favour of the high antiquity of its laws. " Vide Intro, to Vishnu, pp. XVIII-XX. See also Jolly's "Medi- cine" (Grundriss), p. 42.

XIX

for books of reputation, have been the cause of much difficulty among critics in determining such questions of authorship. The works indisputably written by Hippocrates display an extent of know- ledge answering to the authority of his name ; his vivid descriptions have never been excelled, if indeed they have ever been equalled. The Hippocratic face of the dying is still retained in our medical treatises in the original terms, without any im- provement. "

Still more appropriate are the remarks of Littre on the works wrhich now bear the name of "the father of medicine."

"Lorsqu'on recherche I'histoire de la medecine et les commencements de la science, le premier corps de doctrine que Ton rencontre, est la collection d'ecrits connue sous le nom d'ceuvres d'Hippocrate. La science remonte directement a cette origine et s'y arrete. Ce n'est pas qu'elle n'eut ete cultivee anterieurement, et qu'elle n'eut donne* lieu a des productions meme nombreuses ; mais tout ce qui avait ete fait avant le me'decin de Cos a peri. II ne nous en reste que des fragments epars et sans coordination ; seuls, les ouvrages hippocratiques ont e'chappe a la destruction ; et, par une circon- stance assez singuliere, il existe une grande lacune apres eux, comme il en existait une avant eux : les

Xx

travaux des medecins, d'Hippocrate a 1'etablis- sement de 1'ecole d' Alexandria, ceux de cette ecole meme ont peri completement, a part des citations et des passages conserves dans des ^ecrivains pos- t£rieurs ; de telle sorte que les ecrits hippocratiques demeurent isoles au milieu des debris de I'antique litterature medicale.

Of internal evidence the first notable,

and internal evidence, feature is the Style.

The simple, unvarnished prose of the Charaka reminds one of the Brahma^as of the Vedas. Thanks to the researches of Biihler and Fleet, we have now some idea of the prose Kabya style as it existed in the second century A. D. The literary prose inscriptions discovered at Girnar and Nasik, although less ornate and artificial than the romances of Subandhu and Va^a (seventh century A. D)., abound in long-winded metaphors and alliterations and thus stand in bold constrast with the simple prose of the Charaka.

Between the period of the A. V. and that of the Charaka there must have been com-

XXI

posed several medical treatises, each reflect- ing the spirit and progress of its age1. At the time of the Charaka itself there existed at least six standard works by Agnivesa, Bhela, Jatukar/za, Parasara, Harita, and Ksharapam, respectively. Charaka simply based his work on that of Agnivesa2, which he completely recast and remodelled. Later on, Dr/W^avala added the last forty-one chapters3. The other five works seem to have perished*. Vagbha/a,

(1) We are at present engaged in examining the Brahmawas, the Upanishadas and Buddhistic literature with a view to glean in- formation on these points and hope to announce the results in the second volume.

(2) Charaka himself naively assigns his reasons for giving preference to the treatise of Agnivesa in the words : — "of the six (authors) Agnivesa was the most "sharp of intellect" (sutra Ch. I 2.)

(3) fo^TKgfcT %9fN ^f^q<qfcTf3<?Kq I

iT^m ^% ff^ gTT<UW H*W*l H Siddhi. Ch. XII. 28.

Also Chikitsita. Ch. XXX. 112 ; ed. D. N. Sen and U. N. Sen.

(4) Cf. "We know how often in India the appearance of a convenient abstract has led to the neglect and subsequent loss of all earlier works on the subject." — Intro, to Stein's Rajatarngini, p. 25. In Burnell's Tanjore catalogue Pt. I. pp. 63-65, a full ana- lysis is given of Bhelasawhita, from which it would appear that this work is still extant, though in a mutilated form. Dr. Burnell

XX11

the epitomiser of the Charaka and the Sumita, mentions the works of Harita and Bhela, which were probably extant in his days.

On reading the Charaka, one often feels as if it embodies the deliberations of an interna- tional Congress of medical experts, held in the Himalayan regions to which even distant Balkh (Bactriana) sent a repersentative in the person of Kawkhaya^a (see p. 25). The work professes to be more or less of the nature of a record of the Proceedings of such a Congress.1

Bodas in discussing the philosophical disquisitions of the Brahma^as observes :

"It was a special function of the Brahma priest to give decisions on any disputed points that may

remarks ; "the most superficial comparison shows how much Vagbhazfa was indebted to this ancient work."

An "Harita Samhita has recently been published ; but its au- thenticity is questionable.

J (i) Cf. ''La lecture de cet ouvrage nous initie aux compte- rendus de veYitables congres philisophiques et me'dicaux, dans lesquels des maitres accourus des points les plus e'loigne's de 1'Inde et meme de 1'etranger, prennent successivement la parole." — Quel- ques Donnses Nouvelles a propos des Traites medicaux Sanscrits ante'rieurs au XI He siecle, par P. Cordier, p. 3.

XX111

arise in the course of a sacrifice, and this he could not have done unless he was a master of ratiocina- tion. Such decisions, which may be likened to the chairman's rulings in a modern assembly, are scattered through the ancient Brahmawas, and are collected together as so many Nyayas in the Purva Mimawsa aphorisms of Jaimini." *

We would invite the reader to go through the "Discourse on the Tastes" (pp. 25-28) and he will naturally agree that the above remarks apply with equal force to our author. In short, judging both from the manner and the matter of the work,we have little hesitation in placing it in the pre-Buddhistic era. We shall revert to the subject under Sumita.

As regards the Sumita we are on more solid grounds. Its termino-

The age of Su.sruta.

logy and technique, in genenal, do not differ much from those of the Charaka. In style the Sumita is rather dry, pithy, laco- nic, and matter-of-fact, as the Charaka is discursive and diffuse, and its composition al- together would point to a much later date.

(i) Intro, to Annawbha^a's Tarkasawgraha, p. 28,

XXIV

This is easily accounted for. The Susruta, such as has been preserved to us, is generally held to be a comparatively modern recension by the celebrated Buddhist Chemist, Nagarju- na,1 who is said to have added the Uttaratan- tra or the Supplement. 2 Here for the first [time in the history of Hindu Medicine and Chemistry, we come accross a personage who is historical rather than mythical (see belowT). That the redactor thoroughly recast and remodelled the Sumita is evident from the fact that there are numerous passages in it which agree almost 'verbatim with the Charaka, and which appears to have been amply laid under contribution.

3 "Vide Z)alva«a's commentary.

(2) Cf. "It is said by Z>alvawacharya, the commentator of Susruta, that at the time of war between the Bauddhas and Hindus, the Susrutatantra was re-edited and rendered more comprehensive by the renowned chemist Siddhanagarjuna with a supplement call- ed "uttaratantra." Since that period it has been known by the name of Susruta Samhita." Introduction to " Vaidyakasabda- sindhu " p. 6. by Kaviraja Umesachandra Gupta Kaviratna.

XXV

The Sumita is par excellence a treatise on surgery J as the Charaka is on medicine proper. Ancient India must have acquired considerable skill in the handling of the lancet ; for in the Charaka we find a distinc- tion drawn between the " Kayachikitsakas," i. e. the physicians properly so called, and the " Dhanvantvarisampradayas " i. e. fol- lowers of Dhanvantvari or the Chirurgeons— a distinction which we have already noticed in the beginning of the Vedic Age.

The age of Sumita has been the subject of animated controversy for a long time past. The Hindus regard this branch of Ayurveda as a direct revelation from the Asvins cr the Divine Surgeons (see p. i, Intro.). The origin of this myth can be traced to the ^z'gveda as already seen. In the Maha- bharata, Sumita is spoken of as the son of the sage Visvamitra and in the " Varttikas " of Katyayana (about 4th century B. C.) we

(i) For a description of the surgical intstruments together with their drawings, see Wise : " Commentary on the Hindu \j System of Medicine, (1845) pp. 168-170.

XXVI

also find mention of the same name. It is not, however, easy to establish any connec- tion between these names and our present author. That there was a VWddha (old) Susruta, exisiting as early as the fifth cen- tury A. D., has now been established almost beyond doubt. Dr. Hoernle, to whose pro- found scholarship and indefatigable labours the world is indebted for the excellent edition of the Bower Ms., has deduced from palaeographic evidence that it must have been copied within the period from about 400 A. D. to 500 A. D. a — a conclusion at which Prof. Biihler has independently arrived. The work professes to be by Sumita, to whom it was declared by the Muni Kasiraja. The origin of the Ayurveda as given in the Bower Ms., is on much the same lines as in the Charaka and the mention in it, among others, of such names as Harita, Bhela, Parasara, and the Asvins as founders of the science of medicine, would go to prove

(i) On the date of the Bower Ms., See "Journ. As Soc."

LX. Ft. i. p. 79.

XXV11

that even so early as the 5th century A. D., the old Susruta had come to be regarded as of mythical origin, and that therefore it must have been composed many centuries anterior to that time. Several important recipes as given in the Bower Ms., e. g. those of the "chyavanaprasa," "silajatuprayoga" (the doc- trine of bitumen p. 53) etc., occur in practically identical recensions in the Charaka. This is easily accounted for. The Charaka, the Susruta, and the Bower Ms., and even the Ash/afigahrzdaya of Vagbha/a have more or less a common basis or substratum. In order to understand this point more clearly it is only necessary to refer for a moment to the legal literature of the Hindus. The " Manava Dharmasastra " or the Institutes of Manu, which still exercises a potent in- fluence in the regulation of the social life of the Hindus, is by no means the ancient work that it pretends to be. -Modern research has shown that it is only a recension, or rather a recension of a recension, of " Dharmasiitras " connected with the Vedic Schools, incorpora

XXV111

ting at the same time the laws and usages of the age at which it was remodelled.1

It would equally be a great mistake to /suppose that the knowledge — chemical and therapeutical — which our Sumita embodies is only representative of the time of its final redaction. As a matter of fact it is a re- pository of the informations on the subject accumulated from the Vedic age to the date of its final recasting. .

The remarks of M. Berthelot regarding a Greek technical treatise, which, from palaeographic evidence, seems to have been written about the nth century A. D., apply with still greater force to the Sumita. V "'En effet la date de redaction originelle n'est certainement pas le meme pour les divers articles que le trait£ renferme : les uns £tant plus anciens et remontant parfois jusqu'a I'antiquite' gr£co Egy- ptienne ; tandis que les autres reproduisent des recettes poste'neures et des additions peut-etre contemporaines du dernier copiste. En tous cas, ce traite continue la vieille tradition de I'orfevrerie

V (i) Vide Biihler's Introduction to " the Laws of Manu " : pp. XVIII et seq. " Sacred Books of the East," Vol. XXV.

XXIX

alchimique, qui remonte aux anciens Egyptians." — " Coll. des anciens alch. Grecs.," t. iii., trad. p. 307. The period when the Sumira received its "final cast must always remain an open ques- tion. Vagbha/a in his Ashtangahrzdaya makes copious extracts both from the Charaka and the Sumita. The latter must therefore have existed in their present form prior to the 9th century A. D. Madhavakara in his Nidana quotes bodily from the Uttaratantra, and as the Nidana was one of the medical works which were translated for the Caliphs of Bagdad (see below), it can safely be placed in the 8th century at the latest. In is thus evident that the present redaction of the Sumita must have existed anterior to that date, and that it had become at that age stereotyped as it were. The Vagbha/a and the Nidana are simply summaries of the Charaka and Sumita, l and were written at a time when

(i) This statement we make in a qualified sense, and we fully agree with Roth when he observes " Udoy Chand Dutt in seiner Mat. Med. bezeichnet das Werk als eine methodische geordnete Compilation aus Charaka und Susruta. Ich glaube er thut ihm damit Unrecht : Vagbha/'a der sich iibrigens mehr an

XXX

the latter had become very old, and were therefore studied by few experts, and their abstracts were likely to be prized by the general practitioners.

Vagbha/a concludes his masterly treatise with the following observation, which is highly significant : —

" If a work is to pass current as authorita-

Vagbha/a's tive simply because it is the

apologia. production of a sage of old,

why are the treatises of Charaka and Sumita

alone studied and not those of Bhela and

others 1 ? It thus follows that whatever is

reasonable [methodical and scientific] is to

be preferred."2

Read between the lines the above is to be taken as an apology on the part of ,our author for appearing in the field ; it further establishes clearly that even during his life-

Susruta halt, ist nicht so unselbstandig." " Zeit. deut. morg^Ges." 49. p. 184.

(i) e.g Jatukarwa, Parasara, Ksharapam, etc. see p. xxi.

XXXI

time the Charaka and the Susruta were re- garded as hoary with the prescription of age, and their memories had passed into the re- gion of tradition.1

The earliest commentary of the Susruta The commenta- that has been partially preser- ved to us is known as the Bhanumati by Chakrapam Datta, the cele- brated author of the medical work which goes by his name (about 1060 A. D). The other well-known commentary, the Nibandha Sa;;/graha, is by Z^alva/za, wrho lived in the reign of Sahanapala Deva whose kingdom was situated somewhere near Muttra. Dalvana. acknowledges his obligations to the previous commentators, namely Jejja/a, Gayadasa, Bhaskara, and Madhava whose dates it is not easy to ascertain.

Since a remote period the text of the Sumita has been jealously

The purity of the J J

text. preserved and no tampering

with it tolerated. Thus Z?alva«a refuses to

(i) On the age of Vagbhate see below under its proper heading.

XXX11

recognise the authenticity of a passage, because an ancient commentator, Jejja/a, has not noticed it.1

We have been at some pains in arriving Haas on the age at an approximate age of the ofSu,ruta composition of the Sumita,

because attempts have been made now and then by a certain school of European schol- ars to prove that the medical works of the Hindus are of comparatively recent date. \/ Haas has propounded the bold and astound- ing theory that the systematic development of Hindu medicine took place between the tenth and sixteenth centuries A. D.2 We

(0

Chikitsita. VII. 3.

Many such instances may be cited. For the purity of the text we are much indebted to these commentators.

(2) Kehren wir nunmehr wieder zur historischen Frage zuriick, so konnen wir jetzt einen Anfangs — und einen Endpunkt aufstellen, zwischen welche wir mit einiger Sicherheit das Entste- hen der systematischen Wissenschafft der Medizin bei den Indiern verlegen miissen, namlich den Zietraum von der Mitte des 10. bis Zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts. — "Ueber die Urspriinge der Indischen Medizin, mit besonderem Bezug auf Susruta." "Zeit. deut. morg. Ges." XXX. p. 642.

XXX11I

shall see later on that this is precisely the period which marks the decadence of the Hindu intellect in the field of medicine and mathematics/ We should not have thought it necessary to discuss seriously the various arguments which Haas adduces in support of his views, some of which Dr. Hoernle curtly disposes of as "an elaborate joke," were it not for the fact that this German critic re- presents a school which cannot or will not see anything in India, which can claim origi- nality or antiquity. In his blind zeal to sup- port this theory, Haas has been led into the most egregious blunders. He comes to the strange conclusion that the works of Vagbha/a, Madhava and Samgadhara and others supply the germs, out of which the Charaka and Susruta have been elaborated, forgetting or ignoring that the former repeat- edly and gratefully acknowledge their in- debtedness to the latter.

(/) Vide "Decline of Scientific Spirit" pp. 190-198. 3

• -xxxiv

Haas is anxious to prove that the Hindus and the origin of borrowed their notions of.

Indian medicine. humoral pathology from the

Greeks, and that the origines of Indian Medicine are to be looked for in the writings of Galen and Hippocrates ; indeed he goes so far as to suggest that the very name of Sumita is derived from the Arabic word Sukrat ( = Sokrates), which is often con- founded with Bukrat, the Arabic corruption of the Greek Hippocrates.1 There is cer- tainly a strange similarity between the chap- ter on ''Initiation" in the Charaka and the "Eides" of ^Esculapius as pointed out by Roth,2 and there is also much in common be- tween the doctrine of humoral pathology of

(1) No less preposterous is the etymology of Kasi (Benares), which Haas derives from Kos, the native place of Hippocrates.

(2) " Indische Medicin : Charaka," Z., D. M. G., Vol. 26. p. 441. Roth, whose knowledge of the Vedic and, to a certain extent, of the Ayurvedic, literature was encyclopedic, simply points out the analogy and stops short there. M. Lietard, who evidently borrows his information from Roth's article, jumps at once to the conclusion that the Hindus owe their inspiration to the Greeks ! — Bull, de 1'Acad. de Med. Paris, May 5, 1896 and May n, 1897.

XXXV

the Greeks and the Hindus respectively- suggesting that borrowing may have taken place on one side or the other. But the Hindus would seem to have priority of time in their favour.

The doctrine of humoral pathology or at The doctrine of any rate The first beginnings

humoral pathology. Q{ ^ ^ be ^^ SQ faf

back as the time of the /v^'gveda.1

In the Atharva-veda, which may be looked upon as the parent of the Ayurveda, we naturally come across ample evidences of an ingrained belief in the causation of diseases by the disturbance of the humors. Thus we have such terms as " Vatikrzta," i.e. a disease brought on by the derangement of the humor " Vata " (wind or air), " Vatagul- min," &c."

(i) * * * fa^ig sm ^ct' s»w«ft II I. 34- 5- Sayawa's commentary to the above : —

(2) This has been lately pointed out by Jolly ("Medicine" p. 41) : The discussion on the term quoted above is so very important that we think it desirable to quoted it at length : —

XXXVI

Early Buddhist literature also furnishes pre-Budhistic us w^h abundant proofs of

in origin' this nature. On going through the chapter on " Medicaments " in the Mahavagga, we are often reminded of the contents of the Sumita.1 From Pamni

"The history of the interpretation of this hymn is of uncommon interest, because it illustrates forcibly the particular closeness of relation between the hymns of the Atharvan and the practices reported in connection with them. Professor Weber, Indische Studien, IV, p. 405, translated the hymn under the caption ' Gegen hitziges fieber,' and guided especially by the more im- mediate meaning of gar&yug-eih, 'the product of the placenta, after-birth,' he thought that the hymn referred to puerperal fever, or the fever of a child. Ludwig, Der Rigveda, III, p. 343, sur- mised that the hymn was directed aginst inflammation, and Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 390, refers to it in connection with the word vata in the first stanza, which he would translate by ' wound ;' he also identifies vata with ' wound ' etymologically. The compound vatabhra^as in the first stanza, as he understands, means ' suffering from wound-fever.' But Zimmer's theory that the word vata ever means 'wound' has not sustained itself: vata is 'wind in the body;' vatikn'tanasani (VI,44,31) is 'destroyer of the disease which comes from wind (of the body) ;' cf. bata byadhi (vatavyadhi), ' diseases produced by wind (in the body),' in Wise's Hindu System of Medicine, p. 250, and see Contributions, Fourth Series, Amer. Journ. Phil. XII, p. 427." Bloomfield's A. V. p. 246.

(i) One or two instances may be quoted here : — " Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu had a superfluity of humors in his body " — Vinaya Texts : pt. II. p. 60,

XXXV11

also we can glean technical terms as used in the Ayurveda, suggesting that a system of medicine existed in his life-time.1

We have thus what amounts to positive

Positive historical historical evidence that during

the life-time of Buddha and

even much earlier the doctrine of humoral

pathology and the Ayurvedic method of

" And the blessed one said to the venerable A'nanda : 'A dis- turbance, Ananda, has befallen the humors of the ThathAgata's body" — ibid, p. 191.

The various kinds of salts used in medicine as also the eye ointments, to wit, black collyrium [stibium], rasa ointment [ras&n- jana], sota ointment [srotanjana] &c. ibid. p. 90, are exactly the same as prescribed in the Susruta and other works on Hindu Medicine. (See also under anjanas, p. 93 of this book).

Note specially the reference to vatthikamma which is a Pali corruption of the Sanskrit vastikarma :

" Now at that time the Chhabbaggiya Bhikkhus, since a sur- gical operation had been forbidden by the Blessed One, used a clyster/'

No body has yet been bold enough to suggest that in the Mahavagga Greek influence can be traced.

(i) The very terms Ayurveda and Ayurvedika i.e. expert in the Ayurveda occur in Paniwi. We give below a list of some of the technical terms.

XXXV111

treatment were in vogue.1

In the Varttikas of Katyayana also (4th to 3rd century B. C.) the three humours of vata (air), pitta (bile) and sleshman (phlegm) are ranked together.

Regarding the age of the Vinaya Text, Rhys Davids and Oldenburg say :

" The Vibhanga and the Twenty Khandhakas were at that time (circa 350 B. c.) already held in such high repute that no one ventured to alter

*-t«^ i

(i) The Jivaka Komarabhachcha, who treats Buddha, derives his surname from " kaumarabhr/tya," a technical term for one of the eight divisions (astangas) of Ayurveda, meaning treatment of infants. Vide the Mahavagga, pt. n, p. 174.

In A^vaghosha's "Life of Buddha" we also read : "Atri, the Rishi, not understanding the sectional treatise on medicine, afterwards begat Atreya, who was able to control diseases." — Beal's trans, p. il. This Atreya (Punarvasu) may have been the same •sage who taught Agnivesa.

; (2) Weber's "Hist Sanks. Lit." p. 266, Eng. trans, ed. 1892!

XXXIX

them ; a sanctity of this kind is not acquired with- out the lapse of a considerable time : and we think it is not going too far to say, Firstly, that these books must have been in existence, as we now have them, within thirty .years, earlier or later, of, at least, 360 or 370 B. c." (Intro, p. xxiii).

It is therefore evident that almost before V the birth of Hippocrates, the

The question of

priority settled for Hindus had elaborated a

good.

system of medicine based upon the humoral pathology. And yet Hass would have it that the Greeks, in the field of medicine as in several others, were the " pioneers and the first teachers of the world."1

M Lietard very justly observes that if it could be proved that the doctrine of humoral

V

(/) " Wenn aber einmal der Boden von def Vorstellung geniumt ist, dass die Araber den Susriita und Charaka schon im 9. Jahrh. gekannt haben mussen, und wenn auf der andern Seite sich herausstellte, dass die Theorien def indischen Autoritaten in ihren Grundzvigen mit denen des Galen ubereinstimmten, so stiinde nichts der Annahme im Wege, dass auch auf diesem Felde, wie auf so vielen andern die Griechen wieder das bahnbrechende Volk und die ersten Lehrmeister der Welt gewesen sind ": — Z. D. M. G. Vol. 30. p. 670.

xl

pathology was broached in India anterior to the time of Hippocrates, not only would the originality of the Hindus be established, but that of the Greeks would be compromised thereby.1 The question may therefore be now taken as settled for good. \) The capacity of a nation must be judged Concluding j by what it has independently remarks. achieved in the several fields of knowledge and branches of literature- Mathematics, including Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, and Astronomy ; Phone- tics, Philology, Grammar, Law, Philosophy, and Theology.

Cantor, the historian of mathematics, was so much struck, with the resemblance between Greek geometry and the vSulva siitras that he, as is natural to the European, concluded that the latter were influenced by the Alex-

(i) "II est evident que si Ton arrivait un jour a pouvoir reporter jusqu'au dela de 1'epoque d'Hippocrate, la formation de la doctrine me'dicale indienne,son originalite serait incontestable, mais, du meme coup, celle de la medecine grecque serait fort compro- mise, puisque, comme je le rappellerai dans un instant, les theories sont a peu pres identiques de part et d'autre."

xli

andrian school of Hero (215 B. C.).- The Sulva sutras, however, date from about the 8th century B. C., and Dr. Thibaut has shown that the geometrical theorem of the 47th proposition, Bk. I.,, which tradition^ ascribes to Pythagoras, was solved by the Hindus at least two centuries earlier,1 thus confirming the conclusion of v. Schroeder that the Greek philosopher owed his inspir- ation to India.2 Nor must we forget that the most scientific grammar, that the world has] ever produced, with its , alphabet based on 1 thoroughly phonetic principles, was com- posed in India about the 7th or 8th century B. C.3 As Professor Macdonell remarks :

" we Europeans... 25°°

years later, and in a scientific age, stiH employ an alphabet which is not only in- adequate to represent all the sounds of our

~>

(1) Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1875, p. 227.

(2) In his learned work: "Pythagorasund die Inder." pp. 44-59.

(3) See Goldstiicker : "Pawini : his place in Sanskrit Litera- ture/'

xlii

language, but even preserves the random order in which vowels and consonants are jumbled up as they were in the Greek adap- tation of the primitive Semitic arrangement / of 3000 years ago."

It is curious to reflect that the upholders of the " Greek Culture " are often found ready, though unconsciously, to twist and torture facts and conclusions to serve their own purpose, and reserve to themselves the benefit of doubt as regards date ; but when- ever the priority of the Hindus is unques- tionable, an appeal is made to the theory of common origin and independent parallelism of growth.1 These scholars seem to smart under a sense of injury if they have to con-

t (i) Cf . " uhe affirmation nouvelle de 1'unite de 1'esprit humain. Chaque fois que 1'homme au meme degree de culture se retrouve

dans le memes circonstances, il tend a penser, a croire, a sentir, i

a agir de la meme fa9on." — Goblet d' Alviella on " Classical Influence in Literary and Scientific Culture in India "; "Bull.de 1' Academic Royale de Belgique/' 3rd Series, T. 34, pp. 484 et seq.

xliii

fess that Europe owes an intellectual debt to India, hence many a futile attempt to explain away positive historical facts.1 It may not' be superfluous to add here that Alberiini, be- fore he took to the study of Sanskrit, enter-

(i) In the mind of the average European this belief has taken too firm a hold to be easily eradicated. As Dr. Johnson ob- serves :" "Modern writers are the moons of literature ; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients. Greece appears to me to be the fountain of knowledge."

Thanks, however, to the recent researches of orientalists, this notion is fast disappearing. The late Prof. Max Muller, who always held the balance evenly in deciding between the rival claims ot the East and the West, in his last work, thus gives . expression to the European sentiment : "In some respects, and

particularly in respect to the greatest things , India has as ^j /

much to teach us as Greece and Rome, nay, I should say more. */ We must not forget, of course, that we are the direct intellectual heirs of the Greeks, and that our philosophical currency is taken from the capital left to us by them. Our palates are accustamed to the food which they have supplied to us from our very child- hood, and hence whatever comes to us now from the thought- - mines of India is generally put aside as merely curious or strange, whether in language, mythology, religion, or philosophy. — "Auld Lang Syne" : second series, p. 161. Elsewhere he says :

" Another excellent result which may, and I hope will, follow from our increased acquaintance with the actual thoughts and literature, as well as with the personalities of Oriental peoples, is a loosening of that prejudice which undoubtedly obtains, even

J

xliv

tained notions similar to those ' of Haas, d'Alviella and others, but after his intimate acquaintance with the literature of the Hindus he had to change or modify his views. We

among scholarly circles, in the West. It would be perhaps too much to complain that classical "scholars, for instance, should have a decided repugnance to admit any actual influence on Greek thought or institutions as having been exercised by the ^thinkers of. the East, however ungrudgingly that privilege is conceded to Egypt. Personally I think that they are quite in the right in maintaining that such an influence is, except in a few instances, at present entirely unproven. But surely there are many points of analogy which are most instructive, and suggestive at least of more than an. analogical connection ; points that may throw light upon the natural course of the evolution of human conceptions and, in doing so, help to throw light on dark corners of the history of that culture out of which our own has arisen. It is a common saying that it is impossible to know any one language well without at the same time knowing another, and I venture to think that a similar remark holds good of the history of religion or of ethics, or of institutions, or of philosophy."

" I know of men who could not construe a line of Sanskrit, and who speak and write of your ancient literature, religion, and philosophy as if they knew a great deal more than any of your best Srotriyas. How. often you must have smiled on reading such books ! The idea that anything could come from the East equal to European thought, or even superior, never enters the mind of these writers, and hence their utter inability to under- sta id and appreciate what is really valuable in Oriental literature. Th^re is no problem of philosophy and religion that has not

xlv

are here reminded of the essay written by Dugald Stewart uin which he endeavoured to v prove that not only Sanskrit literature but also Sanskrit language was a forgery made by the crafty Brahma;/s on the model of Greek after Alexander's conquest" (Macdo- nell).

been a subject of deep and anxious thought among your ancient and modern thinkers. We in the West have done some good work too, and I do not write to depreciate the achievements of the Hellenic and Teutonic mind. But I know that on some of the highest problems of human thought the East has shed more light than the West, and by and by, depend on it, the West will have to acknowledge it. There is a very able article in the last number of the Edinburgh Review (Jan. 1881), on Dr. Caird's 1 Philosophy of Religion.' Dr. Caird is a representative man in England, and more familiar than most Englishmen with the solid work of modern German philosophers. And what is the last result at which Dr. Caird arrives, and of which even the Edinburgh Review approves V Almost literally the same as the doctrine of the Upanishads ! Dr. Caird writes : ' It is just in this renunci- ation of self that I truly gain myself ; for whilst in one sense we give up self to live the universal and absolute life of reason, yet that to which we thus surrender ourselves is in reality our truer self/ And again : ' The knowledge and love of God is the giving up of all thoughts and feelings that belong to me as a mere indivi- dual self, and the identification of my thoughts and being with that which is above me, yet HI me — the universal or absolute self, which is not mine or yours, but in which all intelligent bpiffgs

xlvi

Those who attempt to prove that India owes her civilisation — or at any rate such advance and progress in the arts and scienc- es which make civilisation worth the name — to Hellenic influence seem to be only one degree removed from a Dugald Stewart.

After all, we are afraid, too much has been made of the resemblance bet-

The analogy more f • W i 11

superficial than i ween the Greek and the Hindu theory and practice of medicine. The analogy is more superfi- cial than real, and does not seem to bear a

alike find the realisation and perfection of their nature ' (p. 257). I need not tell you or any one who knows the Upanishads how powerfully the same doctrine, the doctrine of the A'tma and ParamatmA, was put forth by your old Rishis.

"Many "years ago I ventured to show that the five-membered syllogism of the Indian Nyaya philosophy is the best form that can be given to the syllogism of inductive logic. But European logicians cannot get over the idea that there is no logic like that of our school-men, and that every deviation from it is a mistake.

" The same conceit runs through almost all that is written on India. India may be patronised, some works of Indian poets and philosophers may be called clever and curious, but to recognise in anything the superiority of Indian thought, or the wisdom of Indian native opinion, that is out of the question.

" Bio. Essays :" Letter to X. C. Sen.

xlvii

close examination. The Hindu system is / based upon the three humors of the air, the bile and the phlegm, whilst that of the Greek is founded upon four humors, namely, the blood, the bile, the water and the phlegm — a cardinal point of difference.1

Next to the Charaka and the Susruta, the Vagbha/a. medical authority, who is

held in the highest estimation throughout India, is Vagbha/a, the author of As/arigahri- daya (lit. heart or the kernel of the eight limbs or divisions of the Ayurveda). Inc.eed, in many parts of the Deccan the very names of Charaka and Sumita were forgotten, and Vagbha/a is looked up to as a revealed author, and this is one of the reasons which led Haas to conclude that the former suc- ceeded, and owed their inspiration to, the

(i) Cf. ;< I'ly a dans le corps quatre humeurs : le sang, la bile, 1'eau et le phlegme.'' — CEuvres d'Hippocrate, T. vii. p. 475, ed. Littr£, (1851). Again : " Les quatre humeurs, sang, bile, phlegme et eau, j'ai demontre comment et pourquoi toutes s'augmentent dans le corps par les aliments et les boissons.'' — Ibid, p. 557.

xlvrii

latter1 (see ante p. xxxiii).

The treatise of Vagbha/a may be regard- ed as an epitome of the Charaka and the Sumrta with some gleanings from the works of Bhela and Harita, and contains little or nothing that is original.2 In Surgery alone the author introduces certain modifications and additions. Mineral and natural salts chiefly figure in the prescriptions along with vegetable drugs ; mercury is incidentally mentioned, but in such a perfunctory manner that it would not be safe to conclude that any compounds thereof are referred to. There are, however, a few metallic preparations recommended in it, which would presuppose an advanced knowledge of chemical process- es.

The opening salutation of Ash^afiga, which is addressed either to Buddha or some

*J (i) "An die Stelle des seines Vorrange beraubten Susruta wiirde ich unbedenklich das AshMngalm'daya set/en."- — Hippo- krates und die indische Medizin des Mittelalters. Z.D.M.G., Vo 31, p. 649.

(2) See, however, ante p. xxix, foot note.

(3) Preface to Vaidyakasabdasindhu. p. 6.

xlix

Buddhistic emblem, clearly reveals the religi- ous faith of its author, there is a tradition current among the learned Pundits of S. India, " that Vagbha^a, formerly a Brahmin, was persuaded by a Bauddha priest to adopt his religion, which he embraced in the latter part of his life."1 Internal evidence also iully supports our author's proclivities towards Buddhism,2 and he seems to have flourished

(1) Preface to Vaidyakasabdasindhu. p. 6.

(2) See the numerous passages quoted by Dr. Kunte in his Introduction to Vagbhate, pp. 14-15.

The remarkable passage we have cited above, in which our author asserts the right every man to think for himself (p. xxix), is quite in keeping with the rationalistic age in which he lived, and he further observes in the same place that a medicine will have its efficacy all the same by whomsoever it is prescribed, be he Brahma himself or any body else. It should be commended to those who are lost in admiration over the "keen edged intellect" of Sawkara, who does not find a better weapon to fight with his opponents than an appeal to the Vedas and other scriptures, see foot note to P- 195-

3T5TT

Uttara. XL. 85, 86.

1

at a time when the religion of Sakya Muni held its own in India. The Chinese pilgrim I'Tsing speaks of a compiler of the eight divisions of the Ayurveda — possibly this may refer to Vagbha^a. 3

Cordier, following no doubt the authority of 'Vaidyakasabdasindhu,' states that, accord- ing to Rajatarangini, Vagbha/a lived at the time of King Jayasi/wha (1196-1218 A. D.) ; this view is quite untenable, and it is one of the many instances which would go to prove that Kalha/za in writing his Chronicles had often to draw largely upon vague traditions, and hence his dates are to be accepted cum grano salis*

(l) "These eight arts formerly existed in eight books, but lately a man epitomised them and made them into one bundle." — I'Tsing : "Records of the Buddhist Religion" by Takakasu, p. 128.

12) The eminent Sanskrit scholar, the late A. M. Barua, in discussing the age of Kshirasvami discards the authority of Rdj-aranagini and observes: — ".I do hot see any valid reason for regarding it as a historical authority for all its statements and the more I learn the more my view is confirmed." The name of Vag-bha/a, however, does not occur in Stein's edition of Raj., whit-h may be pronounced .as the most reliable that has yet ap- peai ed.

li

Csoma de Koros was the first to announ- V ce that the Thibetan Tanjur contains among others translations of the Charaka, the Sumita, and Vagbha/a.1 Georg Huth, who has recently critically examined the contents of the Tanjur, concludes that the most recent date at which it can be placed, is 8th century A. D.2 This is in agreement with the fc ct that the Vagbha/a was one of the medical works translated by order of the Caliphs. But no positive information as regards the most distant date is yet available ;3 Kun:e, from internal evidence, is inclined to place him "at least as early as the second centiry before Christ."

That Hindu Pharmacopoeia in the 7th century ran on the lines of

Hindu Pharmaco- poeia in the 7th the Charaka and the Susruta,

century- j j-j • i j

and did not include any e a-

(i) Journ. Asiatic Soc. xxxvii. (1835). 0(2) Zeit. deut morg. Ges, T. Ixix, pp. 279-284.

(3) Regarding the bibliography of Vagbha/a, see two short monographs by Dr. Palmyr Cordier; also Julius Jolly : " Zur Quellenkunde derindischen Medizin," I. ' Vagbhata, Zeit. deut. • Morg. Ges. LIV. pp. 200^74.

borate metallic preparations is evident from the testimonies of Va/za and of the Chinese pilgrim, I-Tsing. Thus, we read in the Harsha-Charita : "among their number, how- ever, was a young doctor of Punarvasu's race named Rasayana, a youth of about eighteen years of age, holding an hereditary position in the royal household, in which he had been cherished like a son by the King. He had mastered Ayurveda in all its eight divisions, and, being naturally of an acute intellect, was perfectly familiar with the diagnosis of diseas- es :"a I-Tsing also records : "I made a successful study in medical science, but as it is not my proper vocation, I have finally given it up."5 In his rules on giving medi- cine he further lays stress on abstinence and fasting and recommends such drugs as the myrobalans, ginger, pepper, liquorice, etc.

(1) Cowell and Thomas' Trans, pp. 143-144.

(2) Takakasu : "Records of the the Buddhist Religion," p, 128,

liii

In both instances, in vain do we look for any metallic salts, which form the leading fea- tures of the later Tantric and latro-Chemical Schools.1

(i) See, however, below under the marginal heading : " The age of the Tantras dealing with mercury."

The Transitional Period

Circa 800 — 1200 A. D. AND CHAKRAPAM

We now come upon a period which deter-

mines the parting of ways in the progress of

Hindu medicine. Hitherto we have been

chiefly concerned with herbs and_simples and

,a few readily available products of the mine-

( ral kingdom. About the year 1050 A. D. Chakrapam Datta, himself a learned commen- tator of both the Charaka and Sumita, wrote the celebrated medical treatise which bears his name. Since the days of Vagbha/a,

^metallic preparations had begun slowly to creep into use, and at the time of Chakrapam and his predecessor Wmda, they had so fully established their claims that they could no longer be ignored. Thus we find from

Iv

the tenth century and downward every medical work more or less recommending compounds of metals which can only be synthetically prepared.

It should not, however, be forgotten that Susruta at times shows a knowledge of pharmacy, unsurpassed in the later Hindu medicine.

Although Chakrapam belonged to the Brahmanical creed, his writings show a decided leaning towards Buddhism. Thus Maghadha itself is named ?r^T«rtf^TI^*r Or the country of the Mahabodhi ; we have also such expressions as «frf^P^«THTfcTrf, ^^TT^^ft ^f%, ^Hr*TrW^«T*T I This might well be expect- ed, for Chakrapam's father was physician to king Nayapala, the successor of Mahipala, Avho ascended the throne about 1040 A.D.1

(i) The author, f6rtunately for future historians, has given an account of himself in a colophon : —

Ivi

Both Vrznda and Chakrapa/zi mention Nag- arjuna as an authority, and they follow closely in the footsteps of Charaka, Sumita and Vagbha/a ; but at the same time they are amenable to the influences brought to bear upon medicine by the Tantras.

Indeed, they go so far as to recommend the uttering of the cabalistic interjections of the votaries of the Tantric cult with a view to increase the efficacy of some of their pre- parations.1 (see ante p. i.)

Dr. Hoernle observes : "it would be satis- factory to be able to discover what

" The author of this work is Sri C. P., who belongs to the amily of Lodhravali and who is younger brother of Bhanu and the son of Narayawa, the superintendent of the kitchen of the King of Gour." Regarding the date of Nayapala, vide Cunning- ham's " Archaeological Survey of India," III. p. 119, also Journ. As. Soc. LX. Pt. i. p., 46, Life of Atisa by S. C. Dasa.

(l) IV «*

Poona ed. p. 518.

Ivii

the sources were on which Chakrapam drew for his compilation ; they are not speci- fied anywhere, I believe, in his work. ' It is not easy to account for the above remarks, seeing that Chakrapam distinctly mentions that he has modelled his work on the Siddha- yoga of Vrmda, 2 and that he draws largely upon the Charaka, the Sumita and the Vagbha/a, all of whom he quotes verbatim and at length.

The religion of Sakyamuni inculcates the alleviation of distress and suffering, both moral and physical, as one of the essential articles of faith, and hence we find throughout

I T

°\

: i

(i) Journ. As. Soc. Beng. LX. pt. i. p. 150.

(2) 9: fai?ii?rfanifufa^fa!?ft3n-

I

Iviii

y Buddhistic India hospitals attached to the numerous imnasteries for the- treatment of man and beast alike. ' It would also appear that inscriptions were engraved on rock pillars giving recipes for the treatment of diseases. Thus both VWnda and Chakrapam speak of a formula__for^a_collyrium as inscribed on a stone pillar by Nagarjuna at Pataliputra :

Chakrapam' bases his work on that of Probable date of VWnda, who again follows v"nda- closely the order and the

pathology of the Nidana of Madhavkara. z It necessarily follows that Vrmda was a recognised authority at least one or two centuries before the time of Chakrapam and that the former was preceded by the Nidana by at least as many centuries and thus we have internal evidence of the exis-

(1) " Everywhere the King Piyadasi, beloved of the Gods, has provided medicines of two sorts, medicines for men and meidicines for animals." Edict II. of Asoka.

(2) W/nda himself admits this :

lix

tence of the Nidana in the eighth century as the lowermost limit — a date which is further corroborated by the fact that the

Nidana was one of the medical treatises

i

translated by order of the Caliph >.

As regards alchemy in India in the Xlth century, we cannot do better Alchemy in the tnan quote in extenso Alberii-~-

eleventh century.

ni, who was well versed in Arabic and Greek astronomy, chemistry etc.

V" The Hindus do not pay particular attention to V alchemy, but no nation is entirely free from it, and one nation has more bias for it than another, which must not be construed as proving intelligence or ignorance ; for we find that many intelligent people are entirely given to alchemy, whilst ignorant people ridicule the art and its adepts. Those intel- ligent people, though exulting boisterously over their make-believe science, are not to be blamed for occupying themselves with alchemy, for their motive is simply excessive eagerness for acquiring fortune and for avoiding misfortune. Once a sage was asked why scholars always flock to the doors of the rich, whilst the rich are not inclined to call at the doors of scholars. ' The scholars,' he

Ix

answered, ' are well aware of the use of money, but the rich are ignorant of the nobility of science.' On the other hand, ignorant people are not to be praised, although they behave quite quietly, simply because they abstain from alchemy, for their motives are objectionable ones, rather practical result of innate ignorance and stupidity than anything else.

" The adepts in this art try to keep it concealed, and shrink back from intercourse with those who do not belong to them. Therefore, I have not been able to learn from the Hindus which methods they follow in this science and what element they principally use, whether a mineral or an animal or a vegetable one. I only heard them speaking of the process of .sublimation, of calcination, of analy- sis, and of the waxing of J; ale, which they call in their language "talaka," and so I guess that they incline towards the minerological method of alchemy.

" They have a science similar to alchemy which is quite peculiar to them. They call it Rasayana, a word composed with rasa i.e. gold. ' It means an art which is restricted to certain operations, drugs, and compound medicines, most of which

(i) See, however, p. 79, for the meaning of the term ,'rasa"

Ixi

are taken from plants. Its principles restore the health of those who were ill beyond hope, and give back youth to fading old age, so that people become again what they were in the age near puberty ; white hair becomes black again, the keenness of the senses is restored as well as the capacity for juvenile agility, and even for cohabita- tion, and the life of the people in this world is even extended to a long period. And wrhy not ? Have we not already mentioned on the authority of Patanjali that one of the methods leading to liberation is Rasayana? What man would hear this, being inclined to take it for truth, and not dart off into foolish joy and not honour the master of such a wonderful art by popping the choicest bit of this meal into his mouth ? " Sachau's Trans. Vol. I. pp. 187-88.

The Tantric Period

Circa uoo A.D. — 1300 A.D.

Before we proceed further it would be advisable to take a hasty

tHcTuit01 the Tan' £lance at the origin of the Tantric Cult, as Indian Al- chemy very largely derives its colour and flavour from it. In almost every country the progress of chemistry can be traced to medicine and the belief in the^ardficial gold-making, — -the search after elixir mice and the philosopher's stone. In India, however, these ends have played a secondary part in promoting a knowledge of the chemi- cal processes. Here the origin of astronomy, geometry and anajtomy is to be sought in the exigencies of religious rites. ' No less

(i) Cf. the opening remarks by Dr. Thibaut on the " Sulva- sutras " ; —

Ixiii

is the case with alchemy. We have already seen how the Atharva-veda deals almost exclusively in charms, sorcery, exorcism of diseases by means of amulets and so on. It is sometimes supposed that the A.V. represents the latest of the Vedas. This is evidently a misimpression. ' The truth seems to be that human frailty has always fought shy of the tedious and laborious methods of gaining an object. The spiritual hankering as foreshadowed in the prayers of the /?zk, and later on so fully developed

" It is well kuown that not only Indian life with all its social and political institutions has been at all times under the mighty sway of religion, but that we are also led back to religious belief and worship when we try to account for the origin of research in those departments of knowledge which the Indians have cultivated with such remarkable success. At first sight, few traces of this origin may be visible in the Sastras of the later times, but looking closer we may always discern the connecting thread." — "Journ. As. Soc." (1875) Vol. XLIV. part i. p. 227.

(i) As Bloomfield remarks: — There is no proof that even the oldest parts of the R. V. or the most ancient Hindu tradition accessible historically, exclude the existence of the class of writings entitled to any of the names given to the Atharvan charms.' Intro, to A. V. X. pXX.

Ixiv

in the Upanishads, represents only the aspirations of the few cultured ^'shis. The bulk of the people have always sighed for a royal road to salvation, hence the neces- sity for an A.V. ; as Emerson appositely says in his essay on Demonology, "the history of man is a series of conspiracies to win from Nature some advantage without paying for it." Atharvanic rites have there- fore more or less held sway over man- kind in every age and clime. As the Aryan conquerors began to settle in India and came into frequent contact with the abori- gines, they had unconsciously to imbibe some of the gross superstitions of the latter, and thus in course of time a superstructure of monstrous growth sprang up, ready to swallow even the purer and more othodox creed. Hence the protests recorded from time to time in the Mahabharata and in the law-books against the vulgarity of the aims of the A. V. and the refusal to accept its authority (see ante p. viii). But on the other hand, by virtue of its profound hold

Ixv

upon popular beliefs and because indispen- sable sciences like medicine and astrology are Atharvanic by distiction, the fourth .Veda has always retained a considerable following. J If we turn to Europe in the middle ages, we find the professors of the " black art " sharing a fate similar to the

priests of the Atharvanic rites,— now

openly received into the bosom of the holy church— —now anathematised and flung into prison. 2

In the Sanskrit Literature whenever there is any reference to sorcery or magic, it is generally laid to the account .of the A. V. But in the course of time the worship of Siva came into vogue, which incorporated much that was non-Aryan in character, and which seems to have^got blended with A. V.

(1) Bloomfield : — Intro, to A. V. xlvi.

(2) This is exemplified in Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon. The former rose to be a Bishop but " minder gliicklich oder un- vorsichtiger als Albertus Magnus, entging Roger Baco der Verfol- gung als Zauberer nicht. Er wurde in Oxford von seinen eigenen Klosterbrudern in das Gefangniss geworfen.' • — "Gesch. d. Chem." 1.63.

Ixvi

Tites as modified by changes and require- ments of the time. The original inhabitants, "the Dasyus are described in the ^z'gveda as non-sacrificing, unbelieving and impious. They are also doubtless meant by .the phal- lus-worshippers mentioned in two passages. The Aryans in course of time came to adopt this iormrof cult. There are many passages in the Mahabharata showing that Siva, was already venerated under the emblem of the phallus when that epic was composed." l By the Vllth century A. D., we find Siva's worship well established

Tantric rites .

•prevalent in the in India. In the lire ot King

seventh century. T T , , , , ,

Harsa by Va/za there is a gra- phic description of a weird ceremony performed by a Saiva saint named Bhairavacharyya. • *•* Seated on the breast of a corpse which lay supine, anointed with red sandal and arrayed in garlands, clothes and ornaments, all of red, himself with a black turban, black unguents, black amulet, and black garments, he had

(i) Macdonell : "Hist. Sansk. Lit", p. 153.

Ixvii

begun a fire rite in the corpse's mouth where a flame was burning." In the drama of Malatimadhava by Bhavabhiiti (690 A.D.) we have also references to similar rites.

We have here the outlines of what has been known latterly as the Tantric Cult — a curious admixture of alchemical processes on the one hand, and grotesque and obscene and some- times revolting rites on the other — all centred round the worship of Siva and his consort Parvati. The sidelight which is thrown in the life of King Harsa and the graphic account f left by his contemporary, the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Thsang, enable us to draw a picture of N. India in the VIHh century A.D. It has hitherto been taken almost for granted that Buddhism was expelled from India by the persecution of the Brahmins of the Renais- sance period. There may have been zealous bigots who now and then went the length of hunting down Buddhists ; but the concensus of testimonies seems to be that both the

(i) Cowell and Thomas' "Trans, of the Harsa-charita p. 92."

liviii

people and the princes generally maintained an attitude of philosophic toleration towards the creed of Sakyamuni even so late as the Xlth century A.D.1 The causes which brought about the extinction of Buddhism in The causes which India worked from within.

brought about the „,. . r ... , .

extinction 1 he purity ot lite, and the

austerity of practices enjoined on the followers of the creed, become in the long run irksome.

(i) Cf. 'The annual report of the Asiatic Soc. to hand : —

"The copper-plate of Madanapala which has just been referred to is interesting also from a sociological point of view. We know that all the Pala kings were followers of the Buddhist religion, and that it was during their reign that Buddhism flouri- shed for the last time in India. Now the grant recorded in the plate was made by Madanapala to a Brahman as a dakshina or honorarium for having read the Mahabharata to the queens of the king's harem. This is one more fact, in addition to others pre- viously known, showing the intimate connexion that existed in the time of those Buddhist kings between Buddhism and Hindu- ism, a connexion that resulted in the former losing more and more its ground against the latter, and that thus prepared the way for the final destruction of Buddhism by the Muhammedan invadors." p. 26. Similar evidence is also afforded by Raj. Tar. e.%.

"Kalhawa does not hesitate to refer repeatedly to the Bodhi- sattvas or to Buddha himself as the comforters of all beings, the embodiments of perfect charity and nobility of feeling. They are to him beings of absolute goodness "who do not feel anger even

Ixix

The monasteries degenerated into hot beds of

corruption, so much so that the semi-savage

Mussulman conquerors felt little compunction

in putting the inmates thereof

of Buddhism. r .

to the sword. Hinduism also

j

which has been noted in all ages for its as- similative and elastic character, swallowed up the remnants of the Buddhists by acknowledg- ing the founder of their religion to be an Avatara or Incarnation of Vish/m.

We have seen that the A.V. rites as also theTantric cults cover almost identical ground; both had their origin in the attempts at popularising the religion among the masses by appealing to the baser or the less refined elements of human nature. An enormous bulky literature has thus sprung up represen- ting this corrupt and effete outgrowth of

against the sinner, but in patience render him kindness.,, — Stein's Intro, p. 8.

(r) According to Waddell, the monks with shaven heads were mistaken for idolatrous Brahmins and massacred wholesale. "Journ. As Soc." LXI. pt. i. p. 20.

Ixx

Brahminism.1 There are however two distinct

classes of Tantras — Brahminic and Buddhis-

Tantras— Brah- tic — dealing in magic, alchemy,

minic and Bud- , ... , , .

dhistic sorcery, and allied subjects,

which will claim our attention here. The causes which favoured the rise and progress of the Hindu Tantras equally contributed to the development of the Buddhistic, a only in the latter, instead of Siva and Parvati, a Buddha, a Tathagata or an Avalokitesvara is often addressed in the invocation as the source and fountain of all knowledge. We have also a class of Tantras which is an ad- mixture of Buddhistic and vSaiva cult. A notable example of which is afforded by the

(i) Tantras grew up in Kasmi'r also : "Tantric cult which in Kasrnir is still closely connected with Saiva worship, seems also to have been well known to Kalhawa." Stein's Intro, to Raj. Tar p. 80.

(2"i Cf. "Pour des esprits grossiers et ignorants, de tels livres ont certainement plus de valeur que les legendes morales des premiers temps du Buddhisme. Us promettent des avantages temporels et immediats ; ils satisfont enfin a ce besoin de superstitions, a cet amour des practiques devotes par lequel s'exprime le sentiment religieux en Asie, et auquel ne r£pondait qu'imparfaitement la simplicity du Buddhisme primitif. " Burnouf's

Ixxi

Mahakala Tantra. x Rasaratnakara, the authorship of which is ascribed to Nagarjuna, also belongs to this category ; this work as well as Rasar/zava, a Tantra of the ^aiva cult, will claim our special attention, as they embody much valuable information on chemistry.

What is it that made these Tantras the repositories of chemical knowledge ? The answer is given in the words of Rasan/ava (lit. sea of mercury) itself, which extols the virtues of mercury and its various preparations :—

" Asitis used by the best devotees for the highest end, it is called pdrada (quicksilver)."

" Begotten of my limbs, it is, O goddess, equal to me. It is called rasa because it is the exudation of my body."

" It may be urged that the literal interpretation of these words is incorrect, the liberation in this life being explicable in another manner. This

— "Intro a 1'hist. du Buddhisme Ind." p. 466. Regarding Buddhistic Tantras and their relationship to Saiva Tantras, the reader is referred to Burnouf's admirable exposition (loc. cit). See also Earth's. "Religions of India." p. 201. 3rd ed. (i) Intro. Hist. Buddh. Ind., p. 480.

Ixxii

objection is not allowable, liberation being set out in the six systems as subsequent to the death of the body, and upon this there can be no reliance, and consequently no activity to attain to it free from misgivings. This is also laid down in the same treatise.

" Liberation is declared in the six systems to follow the death of the body."

11 Such liberation is not cognised in perception like an emblic myrobalan fruit in hand."

" Therefore a man should preserve that body by means of mercury and of medicaments."

A few more typical extracts are given below which will throw further light on the subject :

" The body, some one may say, is seen to be perishable, how can then its permanency be effected? Think not so, it is replied, for though the body, as a complexus of six sheaths or wrappers of the soul, is dissoluble, yet the body as created by Kara and Gauri under the names of mercury and mica, may be perdurable. Thus it is said in the Rasahr/daya :—

" Those who without quitting their bodies have attained to new ones through the influence of Hara and Gouri (mercury and mica), are to be praised as Rasasiddka (alchemists). All mantras are at their

Ixxiii

" The ascetic, therefore, who aspires to liberation in this life, should first make to himself a glorified body. And inasmuch as mercury is produced by the creative con- junction of Hara and Gauri, and mica is produced from Gauri, mercury and mica are severally identified with Hara and Gauri in the verse : —

" Mica is thy seed, and mercury is my seed ;

" The combination of the two, O goddess, is destructive of death and poverty."

11 There is very little to say about the matter. In the Rasesvarasiddhanta many among the gods, the Daityas, the Munis and mankind, are declared to have attained to liberation in this life by acquiring a divine body through the efficacy of quicksilver."

" Certain gods, Mahesa and others ; certain Daityas, Kavya (Sukracharya), and others ; certain sages, Balakhilyas and others ; certain kings, Somesvara and others ; Govinda-Bhagavat, Govin- danayaka, Charvajfi, Kapila, Vyali and others — these alchemists, having attained to mercurial bodies and therewith identified are liberated though alive." "The meaning of this, as unfolded by

few

;to ^arvati, is txas fellows ;—

")The preservation, of body, O Supreme goddess! is obtained by mercury and. by (the suppression of) breath. l Mercury, when swooned, cures diseases and when killed, restores life to the dead. .Mercury and air when confined, enable a man, O goddess, -tp %-abooit.

"The^swooning state of mercury is .thus described : —

"They say quicksilver, to : be swopning,.when it is thus characterised. —

"Of various colours, and free .from excessive fluijdity or mobility (see p.. 74).

"A man should regard that quicksilver as dead, in, .which tfce ab.se,nc,e, tof t^e t following properties is noticed. —

"Wetness, thickness, .brightness, heaviness, mobility.

"Thejfixed condition is described ,jn an- other place as follows :-r-

TThe character of fixed quicksilver is that it

P X 1.. ^ .....(.

is; —

v(i) .Hve Cowell and Gough translate ^fT simply as "air'

-. • • r >...-« . =» r J • f,i)

We are inclined to think, however, that it is used in the sense of closing the ^nostrils — flTIIT^Tf of Yoga philosophy.

fxxv

"Continuous, readily fusible, efficacious, pure, h££vy, and that ft can revert to its oSton natural state." Cf. p. 247.

"Some one rtia£ urge : If trie dfeatton df mercury by Hara and Gauri were proved, it friight be allowed that the btfdy could be made permanent ; but how can that be proved ? The bbjectitih is hot allowable, inasmuch as that can fee prbved by eighteen modes of Elaboration. "Thus it is stated by authori- ties . —

"Eighteen modes of elaboration are to be care- fully discriminated."

"In the first place, as pure ir every process-, for perfecting the adepts."

And these methods of elaboration are enumerated thus.—

"Sweating, rubbing, Kooning, fixing, dropping, coercion, restraining."

"Kindling, going, falling in*to globules, pulveri- sing, covering."

"Internal flux, external flux, burning, colouring, and pouring."

"And eating it by parting a id piercing it

are the eighteen m'odes of treating quicksilver."

Ixxvi

"These treatments have been described at length by Govinda-Bhigavat, Sarvajfta- ramesvara and the other ancient authorities, and are here omitted to avoid prolixity.

"By the science of mercury is to be understood not only a branch of chemistry alone, but it is also to be applied to salvation by means of dehavedha. Rasaraava says. —

"You have, O God, explained the killing of metals. Now tell me that process of dehavedha by means of which aerial locomotion is effected. Mer- cury is equally to be applied to metals and body. First make its experiment on metals and then [having thus gained experience] apply it to the body."1

(i) We have in some places adopted Cowell and Cough's trans, of Sarvadarsanasaragraha, but the rendering appears to be faulty in many instances, notably in the above sloka. The original runs as follows : —

ft w«:

Ixxvii

Emancipation of a man when . alive, as declared in the mercurial system, O subtile Thinker ! is (to be found) in the tenets of other schools though holding different methods of arguments. It is according to all sacred texts to be known by know- ledge. None, when not alive, is likely to know the knowable and therefore a man must live (to know the knowable)."

" It is mercury alone that can make the body undecaying and immortal, as it is said : —

" Only this supreme medicament can make the body undecaying and imperishable."

" Why describe the efficacy of this metal ? Its value is proved even by seeing it, and by touching it, as it is said in the Rasarwava : —

" By means of seeing it, touching it, eating it, remembering it, worshipping it and bestowing it

15 iftt

I. C. Vidyasagar's Ed. (1858).

Here Cowell and Gough render *n<J3T^T§ as "eulogistic of the metal ;" and ^^ as "blood." Regarding ^T?J3T^ See P- *9*- (

1 ...

Ixxvin

fjr'; W ' • ' i -' 'V- f i • i

npou others, six k inds of highest merits a^e

•> i \ j * » • attained.

,, T* i •. r ' «

" Equal merit accrues from seeing mercury as

•v *' *M,-f» Hrr,; :. ... novdf »

accrues from seeing all the phallic emblems.

"On earth, tliose at Kedara, and all others

wiiatsoever."

.. \ r^nnuujj i -ij rn ,

In another place we read : —

• ••' ' sii'

" The adoration of the sacred Quicksilver is more beatific tnan the worship of all the phallic emblems at Kan and elsewhere."

" Inasmuch as there is attained thereby enjoy- ment, health, exemption from decay, and immor- tality."

" The sin of disparaging mercury is also set out : —

" The adept on hearing quicksilver heedlessfy disparaged should recall quicksilver to mind."

" He should at once r shun the blasphemer, ,who is, by his blasphemy for ever filled with sin." Cf. under R. R. S, p. 78. .

The quotations given above are from the " Sarvadarsanasawgraha, " or a (< Review of the Afferent systems of Hindu Philosophy" by Madhavacnarya, prime minister to Bukka I. of Vijayanagara', and who was elected in 1331 A. D. head-abbot of the monastery

Ixxix

, rtl

of Sringeri. Of the sixteen philosophical systems current in the I4th century during the author's lifetime, Rasesvaradarsana or the " Mercurial System," is one. From the fact that Rasanzva is quoted in it as a

U I ».' -. - ?- :=. -- if',

standard work on this subject it would be

safe to conclude that it must have been

'*« i !?•+.> ,

written at least a century or two earlier,

say sometime about the 1 2th century. In Amarasiwha's Lexicon (ca. 1000 A. D.)1 the following synonyms of pdrada (mercury) are given, namely, chapala, rasa, and sum] but in the vocabulary of Visvakosha 'by Mahesvara (i 188 A. D.) haravija (lit. semen of ^iva) is added thereto. Now in the Tantric literature, of which the philosophy of mercury is the main outcome, quicksilver is regarded as the generative principle, and directions are given { for making a mercurial phallus of 5iva. We may, therefore, take it that the Tantras which deal in mercurial prepara- tions, had their origin sometime about the

(i) Regarding^the date of Amarsitoha see also p. 146,

Ixxx

nth to 1 2th century A. D. It whould not be justifiable however to hold that the Tantras did not exist before this time.

Although we have maintained above that the alchemical Tantras had

The age of the

Tantras, dealing their origin about the nth

with mercury.

century A. D., it would be safer to conclude that the Tantric processes had. sprung into existence long before this time, but that they did not acquire sufficient importance to force the attention of the physicians, as we have seen above that the R. V. and the A. V. existed almost side by side though the latter was held for a long time in contempt and was not quoted in the orthodox treatises.

One very strong argument in favour of much older dates of the above Tantras is that Madhavacharya, a very cautious and discriminating writer, whom we have quoted above, describes the works he cites, including Rasarwava, as "ancient authorities" in his

Ixxxi

life-time (see above p. Ixxvi).1

We have already had occasion to draw

attention to the non-mention

Earliest historical f metallic preparations,

evidence of the in- ternal use of mer- notablv of those of mercurv,

cury. J

in the writings of Va;/a and I'Tsing (p. li). But this is another apt illastration of the dangers* of the argu- mentum ex silentio. In the \>/hatsa;#hita of Varahamihira (d. 587 A. . D.-) there is mention of iron and mercury among the aphrodisiacs and tonics ; * and this his-

(i) A recent exa-n'nation of the Sanskrit Mss. in the Durbar Library of Nepal has brought to light important old Tantric works. One, the Lawkavatara, a Hindu Tantric work on medicine, written in a later Gu;/ta hand (908 A. D.) ; another, "the composition of which must go Lack to the early centuries of tie C l.rii-t'^n era." This discovery up-ets all established theories as to the age of the Tantras, a full discussion of which must be reserved for the second volume Vide. — Rep. on the Search of Sans. Mss. (1895-1900) by M. H. P. 5:stri.

(2)

torical evidence- is of great use to us iri deciding the age of the Tantras, dealing jwith mercury.

Contemporary collateral records by foreign writers go to corroborate the date of the alchemical Tantras tentatively fixed by us, as the name and fame of mercurial re- medies as used by the Hindu yogis had spread far and wide. The following two extracts will -suffice :

^- "There is another class of people called Chughi (yogi), who were indeed properly Abraiman, but they form a religious order devoted to the, idols. They are extremely long-lived, every one of them living to 150 or 200 years. They eat very little * and these people make use of a strange beverage, for they make a potion of sul- phur and quicksilver mixed together, and this they drink twice every month. This, they say, gives7 them long life ; it is a potion they are used t'o take from their childhood."— Yule's " Macro PojOy "

Vok IL p. 300.

.-. .. .5 "Arghun, der alchymie und den geheimen

>sj Wissenschaften ergeben hatte indisehe Bachschi, d. h. Schreiber, ^efragt, durch welche Mittel sie

Ixxxlii

sich ihr Leben so langwierig fristeten. Sie gaben ihm ein aus Schwefel und Mefkur zusammengesetz- tes Mittel als die Panacee der Lebensverlangeruhg ein." (1-290 A. D.) — Hammer-Purgstall ; <( Gesch- ichte der Ilchane," I. p. 391.

It is to be regretted that of the several works quoted by Madhava,

Alchemical Tantras.

Rasanzava alone seems to have survived to our days. This work is almost unknown in Bengal, and extremely rare even in N, India and the Deccan.. We have been fortunate enough to procure 'a transcript of it from the Raghunatha Temple Library, Kasmir, and another from the Oriental 'Mss_; Library, Madras. As one of the earliest works of the kind, which throws a flood of light on the chemical knowledge of the Hindus about the i2tfr century A. D:, Rasar//ava must be regarded as a valuable national legacy. It has, .besides, the merit of being the inspirer of several works of the latro-chemical period, notably Rasaratna.- samuchchaya and Rasendrachintama;/i. Although Rasan/ava .as a Tantra pretends to

Ixxxiv

have been revealed by the God .Siva himself, its author, whoever he may be, now and then blurts out hints, which clearly prove it to have been complied from preexisting works, for instance, it has not hesitated, as we find ; to borrow copiously from Rasaratnakara at- tributed to the renowned alchemist Nagarjuna. Of this last work we have been able to obtain as yet only a fragment from the Kasmir Library ; but it has been of signal use to us, as by the parallelism of its text the genuiness and au henticity of a great portion of the Rasanzava have been estab- lished.

In the present volume it has been our aim to compare and collate

Collation of Mss.

carefully the passages in the Mss. of Rasaratnakara, Rasanzava and Rasatnasamuchchaya, in so far as they bear on chemistry and allied sub- jects ; in this way several important lacunae have been filled up and many doubtful read- ings resored. Parallel passages have often been quoted in the foot-notes and cross-

Ixxxv

references given, pointing out where the probable borrowing has taken place. It is to be hoped that by instituting this sort of intercomparison, the verbal integrity of the texts adopted may be depended upon, and the danger of interpolation has been avoided. The texts of Charaka, Sumita, Vagbha/a and Chakrapam have not been reproduced as they are available everywhere in the most reliable shape.

The translations presented do not always Recommendatory pretend to be strictly literal,

features of R. R. S. ;ndujgent

reader will put up with infelicities of expression here and there, which could not be avoided without taking undue liberty with the original. We have drawn very largely upon R. R. S., because it has several features to recommend. First, an excellent edition of it has been published at Puna, based upon a comparison of 13 Mss., procured from dif- ferent parts of Southern India. Second, there exists a Ms. of it in the library of the Sansk-iit College, Benares, in a very neat and

Ipgible handwriting, copied in samvat 1850 i. e. ;i 793 A.D., to which we have had access whenever required. We have also obtained a transcript of it from the Kasmir Library. The Benares and the Kasmir Mss. agree in all essentials, but differ in certain places from the Puna edition. The text we have adopt- ed is thus based upon a comparison of the Deccanese and N. Indian exemplars. Third, while Rasaratnakara and Rasanzava are Tan- tras pure and simple in which alchemy is inci- dentally dwelt upon, R. R. S. is a systematic and comprehensive treatise on materia medi- ca, pharmacy and medicine. Its methodical and scientific arrangement of the subject- matter would do credit to any modern work, and altogether , it should be pronounced a production unique of its kind in Sanskrit lite- rajiure. Its value is further enhanced from tfhe .fact- that the materia medica portion is1 harmoniously blended with chemistry.

The author, whoever he may be, .is very anxious to establish his

pseudo-Vagbha/a.

identity -with V a g b ha t a:,

'Ixxxvii

the celebrated, author of the • Ash/aiiga and describes himself as such in the colo- phons at the end of every chapter (p, 78) ; but he forgets that in doing so he is guilty of a glaring piece of anachronism. The che- mical knowledge, as revealed in the Vagbha- /a, is almost on a par with that in' the Sumi- ta. But this sort of utter disregard for chro- nological accuracy is by no means uncommon in the alchemical literature of .the middle ages in Europe. The world* iis indebted to the genius and perseverance of M. Berthelot^ for unravelling the mysteries which so long hung about the writings of Geber1 ; and the interval of time between our pseudo-Vagbha- /a and the author of Ash/anga is even much wider than that between the Latin Geberand the real Geber. We are apt to be very harsh

i)) "L'hypothese la plus vraisemblable a mes yeiix, c'est qu- un auteur latin, rest£ inconnu, a e'crit ce livre dans Ja ,seconde moitie du Xllle siecle, et 1'a mis sous le patronage du nom v£n€r£ deGe"ber; de meme que les alchimistes" greco-egyptiens avaient emprunt^ le grand nom de D^mocrite pour en couvrir leurs ^lu- cubrations/'— "La Chimie au Moyen age, T. i. p. 349.

Ixxxviii

on these literary forgerers ; rather we ought to give them credit for their utter self-efface- ment. We often forget that the sp'rit of the times in which they wrote was dead against them — reluctant to accept revolutionary ideas or discoveries ; hence the temptation to fasten them on old and recognised authorities. Although no direct historical evidence is available, we are not left entirely in the dark. Our author, at the very outset, names twenty, seven alchemists from whose writings 'he1 derives his materials (p. 7 7 ), and later on, in the section on apparatus (p. 130), he quotes Rasar/zava as a source of his information. Opium was nit employed in medicine _ . ., in his time nor is there any

Probable date of

R.R.S. mention of Phiraiigaroga, (lit.

the disease of the Portuguese),1 which was introduced into India about the middle of the 1 6th century, and the treatment of which by means of calomel and chob-chini

(i) This is the name by which syphilis is known in the later Hindu medical works. See p. 252.

Ixxxix

(China root) occupies a conspicuous place in in the much later work, Bhrnvaprakasa. The date of the R. R. S. may, therefore, be placed between the i3th and i4th centuries A. D.

CHAPTER V

latro-Chemical Period

During the Tantric period, with its sys- tem of the "Philosophy of

Characterstics of '

the intro-chemicai Mercury" 3. vast mass of che- mical information was accu- mulated, which was pressed into signal ser- vice in the period immidiately succeeding it— the latro-chemical Period of India. The prominent feature of the former lies in the search after the elixir intae and the powder of projection as the contents of the Rasa^ ratnakara and Rasar;/ava amply testify; whereas in the latter these phantastic and ex- travagant ideas, impossible of realisation, had subsided into something more practical and tangible. The numerous preparations of mercury, iron, copper and other metals, al- though they could not secure immortality or revive the dead, were found to be helpful accessories in medicine. At first they came

XC1

to be used cautiously and tentatively, mixed up with the recipes of the Gharaka and the Sumita, which are drawn chiefly from the vegetable kingdom ; but they soon began to assert a supremacy of their own and even to supplant the old Ayurvedic treatment by herbs and simples. Nay more, absurd pre- tentious were set up on behalf of these metal- lic preparations. Thus in Rasendrachintu- ma//i, a work probably co-eval with R. R. S., we come across this remarkable passage :— "Revered teacher! be pleased to instruct me, for the benefit of the weak and the timid, in a mode of treatment which will dispense with the use of the lancet, and both active and potential cauteries," thus putting in a plea for the indiscriminate use of mercurial remedies.

R. R. S. is a typical production of the latro-chemical period. The name of treatises treating of medicinal chemistry is simply legion. But they are all cast in the same mould, and the close similarity of their con- tents would render their translation onlv a

XC1I

works of supererogation. We have, there- fore, confined ourselves to quoting only such parallel passages in the foot-notes as are calculated to throw light upon or corroborate the authenticity of, the text of R. R. S.

An account of this period will be scarcely complete, which fails to take

Nagarjuna. r , . ~

note of the conspicuous figure whom the Indian alchemists unanimously look upon as the inventor of the processes of distillation and calcination — the renowned and the venerable Nagarjuna, the reputed author of Kakshaputatantra, Rasaratnakara and Arogyamanjari, etc. Our R. R. S., in the opening lines, invokes him as one of the 27 alchemists, and in the chapter on minerals quotes him as an authority. So does Rasen- drachintamam as also Chakrapa/n while des- cribing the process of roasting iron (p. 62).

We have already seen that according to V/'/nda and C. p., Nagarjuna was the first to introduce the preparation known as Kajjvali (black sulphide of mercury p. 61). Dalva;/a also makes him the redactor of the Susruta.

XC111

The mention of Nagarjuna by all these author- ities would not remove him far from the 8th or the 9th century A. D., a date which is also confirmed by Alberuni, who says :

" A famous representative of this art [alchemy] was Nagarjuna, a native of the fort Daihak, near Somnath. He excelled in it and composed a book which contains the substance of the whole literature on this subject and is very rare. He lived nearly a hundred years before our time.' — 'India, I. p, 189.

But there are difficulties in the way of accepting this chronolgy of the age of Na- garjuna. Hiouen Thsang, who resided in India from 629 A. D. onwards, relying upon local traditions, speaks of Nagarjuna ' as a

(i) " Nagarjuno Bodhisatva was well practised in the art of compounding medicines ; by taking a preparation (pill or cake)' he nourished the years of life for many hundreds of years, so that neither the mind nor appearance decayed. Satvaha-raja had par- . taken of this mysterious medicine." — Seal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, vol. II. p. 212.

Again : — Then " Nagarjuna Bodhisatva. by moistening all the great stones with a divine and superior decoction (medicine or mixture) changed them into gold.'' — Ibid. p. 216.

XC1Y

learned and revered Buddhist and alchemist, and a friend of King Satvahana. a The poet Vawa, a contemporary of the Chinese pilgrim, also corroborates this account in his life of King Harsha.

In the Buddhist canonical literature, Na- garjuna is a prominent figure as the founder, or, atanyrate,thesystematiser of the Madhyamika philosophy. Western scholars maintain that he lived in the ist century A. D., while according to Rajatarangini, the "History of Kasmir" by Kalha//a MLsra (i i century A. D.), Nagarjuna flourished 1 50 years after Sakyasiwha had be- taken himself to asceticism, i.e. he lived in the last quarter of the 4th and first quarter of the 3rd century B. C. It is doubtful, however, if Nagarjuna, the philosopher, is the same as Nagarjuna, the alchemist, considering

(2) Nagiirguna was a friend of Satvahana, a king of Kosala rountry to the South West of Urisya and watered by the upper feeders of the. Mahanadi." — Ibid. II. p. 209. As to the age of Satvahana see Burgess' Archaeological Survey of S. India. Re- garding Nagarjuna see also Introd. a V histoire du Buddh. Ind. p. 5o8.:

xcv

that we find no reference whatever to the pro- cesses of distillation, sublimation etc. in the Charaka, the Sumita, and the Yagbha/a, though it must be admitted that the latter can lay claim to superior chemical knowledge, (see p. xlviii).

We have also another alchemist in Patan- jali, who is better known as

Patanjali. J . .

the commentator of Pa;/im. He probably lived in the 2nd century B. C.' Sivadasa, in his commentary of Chakrapawi, quotes him as an authority on Lohasastra, or the " Science of Iron," and Chakrapa;/i him- self speaks of him as the redactor of Charaka (see p. xv). Bhoja in his Nyayavartika speaks., of Patanjali, as a physician both to the mind and to the body. 2 The moksha (salvation), as taught in the Yoga system of Patanjali, is

(1) Proof. Bhandarkar : Ind. Antiquary, 1872, pp. 299-302.

(2) ":

— Bhoja : Nyayavartika, quoted by Sivarama, the commentator of Vasavadatta.

XCV1

also connected with alchemy. a We have already seen, while discussing the "Philosophy of Mercury" (see ante p.Mxxvi), the Rasayana or Alchemy was simply regarded as a means to an end — as a path leading to moksha. It is significant that this connection can be traced from so early a date.

In the present volume we shall seldom v have occasion to go bevond

Progress or

chemical know- the 1 4th Century A. D. It ledge in Europe.

will, perhaps, add to the interest of the subject, if we turn our eyes for a moment to the progress of chemical know- ledge in Europe at that time, and the alche- mistic ideas and beliefs dominating it. Con- temporary with the authors of Rasaraava and Rasartnasamuchchaya, were Roger Bacon (d. 1294), Alertus Mag£&s, Raymond Lully, and Arnaldus Villanovanus. Roger Bacon does not hesitate to assert that the philoso-

(3) The author (Patanjali) adds to the three parts of the path of liberation a fourth one of an illusory nature, called Rasayana, consisting of alchemistic tricks with various drugs, intended to realise things which by nature are impossible." — Alberunf s 'India' —I. p. 80.

XCV11

phers stone was able to transform a million times its weight of base metal into gold. The above-named alchemists are also unani- mous in regarding it as a -universal medicine, and "it was no unusual assertion that adepts, the fortunate possessors of the panacea, had been ;able to prolong their lives to 400 years and more."-— Meyer. The readers of Rasar- //ava and the other Tantras will not fail to find that there is much in common between the Hindu alchemists and their European confreres.

The knowledge in practical chemistry,

prevalent in India in the i2th

Knowledge in and 1 3th centuries A. D., and

practical chemistry,

prevalent in India perhaps earlier, such as we

in the I2th and

i3th centuries A. D., are enabled to glean from

and perhaps in • ~ , ....

earlier. Rasamava and similar works,

is distinctly in advance of that of the same period in Europe. It was known for instance that blue vitriol and a variety of the pyrites (seep. 70) yielded* an essence in the shape of copper ; and calamine, zinc. The colour of flames as a

XCVlll

diagnostic test of metals was well under- stood (p. 68). The metallurgical processes, described under the latter, leave little to improve upon (p. 88), and, indeed, they may be transferred bodily to any treatise on modern chemistry. Even Paracelsus-, who flourished some three centuries later, leaves / us in the dark as to the nature of his fzmken/

I which he designates a 'semi' or 'bastard7 metal. And Libavius (d. 1616) " who stood up manfully against the excesses of Paracel- sus, and who vigourously combated the de- fects in his doctrines, * * * and the employment of " secret remedies," believed in the transmutation of the metals and the ef- ficacy of potable gold.1 It is not necessary to pursue this subject further here, as details will be found in the chapter on metallurgy (pp. 152-169).

J The truth is that up till the time to pseudo-Basil Valentine (ca. 1600 A. D.),

(i ) Gesech. d. chem. I. 13.

xrix

very little scientific progress was achieved in Europe. The doctrines of Aristotle and of the Arabian alchemists held the ground, and the enigmatic and mystic language, which was often used as a cloak for igno- rance, simply confounded the confusion.

Still more solid progress was effected in pharmacy. For two thousand years or more the Charaka and the Somita have been paid all the honours of a state-recognised Phar- macopoeia, Partly due to their being regarded as of revealed origin, and partly due to that veneration for the past, which is inherent in the Hindu, the text of the above works has seldom been allowed to be tampered with. A critical examination of the Bower Ms. such as we owe to Dr. Jloernle, shows that the recipes of several important preparations agree in all essentials, and sometimes word for word, with those of the Charaka and the Susruta of the existing recensions (see ante p. xix). Mr. Ameer Ali is scarcely correct \\rhen he claims that " the Arabs invented chemical pharmacy, and were the founders of

those institutions which are now called dis- pensaries.' ]

We have only to refer our reader to the chapter on the preparation of caustic alkali, in the Sumita, with the direction that the strong lye is to be " preserved in an iron vessel," as a proof of the high degree of per- fection in scientific pharmacy achieved by the Hindus at an early age (p. 37). It is absolutely free from any trace of quackery or charlatanism, and is a decided improye- .ment upon the process described by a Greejc writer of the IXth century, as unearthed by M. Berthelot.2 As regards dispensaries and hospitals, every one knows that Budhistic India was studded with them (vide p. xxxii). Speaking of the progress of chemistry in Europe in the XVIth century, Prof. Schor- lemmer remarks : —

"Up to the XVIth century almost the sole object of chemical research had been to find the

(i) Hist, of the Saracens, p. 462, (Ed. 1899.)- ( 2> See p. 22,

Cl

philosopher's stone. But now chemistry began to develop' itself two new and different paths, opened by two distinguished men — Agricola, the father of metallurgy, and Paracelsus, the founder of latro- chemistry or medical chemistry. Both contributed chiefly to the development of inorganic chemistry * * In opposition to the school of Galen and Auicenna, Paracelsus and his followers chiefly em- ployed metallic preparations as medicines."'

Udoy Chand Dutt, in the preface to his Materia Medico, of the Hindus, states:—

"The oldest work, containing a detailed ac- count of the calcination or preparation of the different metals (such as gold, silver, iron, mercury, copper, tin and lead) for internal use with formulae for their administration, is, I believe, a concise treatise on medicinal preparations by Sarngadhara.

This is evidently a mistake. Sarngadhara is simply a compilation based upon the Char- aka and the Sumita on the one hand, and the Tantric works described above on the other. It cannot be regarded as going be- yond the latter part of the i4th century, and

(i) Rise and development of Orgauic chernistrv (ed. 1894) p. 9.

cii

it will come under our notice in the second volume of the present work. In the European histories of chemistry, the credit of being the first to press chemical knowledge into the service of medicine and introduce the use of the internal administration of mercurial pre- parations, is given to Paracelsus (1493-1541) The Nagarjunas and the Patanjalls of India, however, had the merit of anticipating Para- celsus and his followers by several centuries- The earliest historical record of the internal use of black sulphide of mercury dates so far back as the roth century A. D. at the latest1 (see ante p. 59). We have indeed, reasons to suspect that Paracelsus got his ideas from the East, and in Chapter on Arabian indebt- edness to India we have pointed out the media through which Indian sciences filtered into Europe.

rj (i) In Europe, its use dates from the lyth century. " Das schwarze Schwefelquicksilver lehrte zuerst Furquet de Mayerne im Anfange des 17, Jahrhunderts, durch Zussanmmenreiben von warmen Quicksilver mit geschmolzenem Schwefel darstellen," Kopp. Gesch. 1 86.

t:m

Dutt says : " We cannot help admiring the in- genuity and the boldness of the Hindu physicians, when we find that they were freely and properly using such powerful drugs as arsenic, mercury, iron, etc., when the Mussulman Hakims around them with imperial patronage and the boasted learning of the West, recording such remarks re- garding them as the following : — •

*' Soomboolkhar, { the white oxide of arsenic. — ' There are six kinds of this, one name Sunkia, the third Godanta, the fourth Darma, the fifth Huldea. The Yunani physicians do not allow this to form a part of their prescriptions, as they believe it des- troys the vital principle. The physicians of India, on the coutrary, find these drugs more effectual in many disorders than others of less power such as the calx of metals. For this reason too I am in the habit of seldom giving these remedies inter- nally, but I usually confine my use of them to ex- ternal application and as aphrodisiacs which I prescribe to a few friends, who may have derived no benefit from Yunani prescriptions. It is better to use as few of them as possible." i

''Para, 'Mercury.' — It is very .generally used throughout India in many ways, both in its native

(i) Taleef Shareef trans. George Playfair, p, 99,

CIV

and prepared state, [but in the latter we ought to be very cautious, for it is seldom sufficiently killed or removed from its native state, in which it is a dangerous drug."

" Loha, ' iron.' — It is commonly used by physi- cians in India, but my advice is to have as little to do with it as possible." 2

Nor must we forget that so late as 1566 A. D. the Parliament and' the Faculty of medicine, Paris, condemned and forbade what was regarded as the dangerous innovations of Paracelsus.3

\t Apart from the historical data already ad- duced, the above extracts from a Mohamme- dan writer would show that the Hindus were perhaps the earliest in the field to advocate the internal use of mercury/ Ainslie, in a note appended " Lepra Arabum," written in the early part of the last century, thus ex- presses his views on the subject :—

*- -(i) Ibid, page 26.

(2) Taleef Shareef, page 146.

(3) Gesch. d. Chem. I, no.

cv

note appended to " Lepra Arabum," written in the early part of the last century thus ex, presses his views on the subject :—

" It is well known that the Eastern nations were ^ the first who employed mercury in the cure of obstinate, cutaneous and leprous affections ; and it may be questioned whether the natives of India were before the Arabian or only second in order in availing themselves of the virtues of that power- ful mineral. Rhases, l Mesu and Avicenna 2 all notice it, and according to Fallopius, as we find observed by Le Clerc in his "Histoire de la Medi- cine" pp. 771-791, it was the opinions of those writers which first suggested its use in venereal diseases. 3

(1) " Argentum vivum cum extinguitur ardens est, quod V scabei, et pediculis auxilium offert " — Rhazes :" de Re med." (lib iii. cap. xxiv). In the days of Pliny the Elder the medicinal virtues

of mercury do not appear to have been at all ascertained ; that writer termed quicksilver the bane and poison of all things and what would with more propriety be called death silver. "Nat. Hist." lib xxxiii. Cap. vi).

(2) Avicenna says of mercury " argentum vivum extinctum adversus pediculos et lendes cum rosaseo oleo valet.'' Vide

. " lib. ii. tract, ii. p. 119.

(3) Trans. R. As. Soc. (1824-27).

CV1

From the evidences we have adduced all along there can now be scarcely any question as regards the priority of the Hindus in mak- ing mercurial remedies a speciality; and they are entitled to claim originality in respect of the internal administration of metals generally seeing that the Charaka and the Susruta, not to speak of the later Tantras, are eloquent over their virtues.

CHAPTHR VI.

Indebtedness of the Arabians to India.

The Arabians are acknowledged on all hands to have played a prominent part in the propagation of science and mathematics in the West. When in the dark and middle ages, the lamp of knowledge had begun to burn very low in Europe and even when the very vestiges of Greek culture and learning had all but disappeared, save in the obscure and dingy cells of the monk, it was the Arabs who carried there the accumulated intel- lectual treasures of the East, and thus laid the foundation, so to speak, of modern Euro- pean greatness.

It will, perhaps, be not out of place to dis- cuss here briefly as to how much India in- directly contributed to this result in the de- partments of medicine, pharmacy and other kindred subjects.

CV111

The author of Kitab-al-Fihrist, who wrote towards, the middle of the tenth century1, Haji Khalifa and Ibn Abu Usaibiah, who flourished at the commencement of the i3th century, distinctly mention that by order of the Caliphs Harun and Mansur several stand- ard Hindu works on medicine, materia medica and therapeutics were translated into Arabic. The information on the subject has been gather- ed at length by Dietz in his Analecta medica, Wustenfeld, author of Geschichte der Arab. Aerzte, Cureton*, Fliigel, Miiller and other Arabic scholars.

(i) " Abu'l Faraj Mohammed bin Ishak, surnamed au-

Nadim, a native of Bagdad, first conceived the idea of a biblio- graphical dictionary. His Kitab-al-Fihrist deals with every branch of learning. It gives the names of many authors and their works which have ceased to exist." — Hist, of the Saracens by Ameer Ali, p. 469.)

(2) Prof. H. H. Wilson in a Note appended to a paper by the Rev. W. Cureton entitled " A collection of such passages relative to India as may occur in Arabic writers" thus pithily summarises his own views : — •' In medicine the evidence is more positive, and it is clear that that the Charaka, the Susntfa, the treatise called Niddna on diagnosis, and others on poisons, diseases of women and therapeutics, all familiar to Hindu Science, were translated and studied by the Arabs in, the days of

C1X

Fliigel2 states on the authority of Kitab-al- Fihrist that Susrnd (the Sanskrit name Somita, thus corrupted into Arabic) was translated by Mankh, the Indian, who cured Harun ar-Raschid of a severe illness, and was appointed physician in charge of the Royal Hospital. We also learn that a work on the official plants of India was rendered into Arabic by the same Mankh. The other comprehensive Sanskrit treatise^ the Charaka was also fully laid under contribution.

We have ample and overwhelming testi- mony of Arabic writers, notably of Haji Kha- lifa, that Hindu astronomy, algebra and medicine were zealously studied by their com- patriots, and many Hindu servants were in- duced to reside at the Court of the Caliphs as their instructors. Mussulman students,

Harun and Mausur, either from the originals or translations, made at a still earlier period, into the language of Persia." — Journ. Royal Asiatic Soc. old series, vi. pp. 105-115.

(i) " Zur Frage iiber die altesten Uebersetzungen indischer und persischer medicinischer Werke ins Arabische ; Ziet. deut. morg. Ges. xi. pp 148 and 325*

ex

in their eager thirst for knowledge, used to flock to the centres of learning in India, and there drank deep at the very fountain-head. Indeed, it had come to be regarded as an essential part of completing one's liberal education to travel to India and learn the sciences firsthand.

That this is no language of rhetoric will be \ evident from the extracts quoted below from Gildemeister's " Scriptorum Arabum De Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula."

" Etiarn Muhammed ben Ismail al Tanukhi in Indiam profectus est eo imprimis consilio, ut Indo- rum astronomiam cognosceret.

" Ibn Albaithar, rei herbariae inter Arabes peri- tissimus, qui and eius disciplinae studium long- inqua itinera per Hispaniam Africam et Asiam ins- tituit, etiam in Indiam venit, teste Leone Africano; Abulfada tamen et Ibn Abi Ucaibia, qui de eius vita scripserunt, eius rei mentionem non faciunt." p. 80.

" Sed etiam accuratius edocti erant, et scite iam vetus Indopleusta eas disciplinas, in quibus Indi maxime excellerent, nominat has : medicinam, phi- losophiam et astronomiam. Eodem modo Hagi

CXI

Khalfa arithmetic-am, geometriam, medicinam, as- tronomiam et metaphysicam enumerat." p. 81.

" De libris ex Indica lingua in Arabicam con- versis iam inter Arabes egerunt ii, qui libros de re literaria composuere. Plurimi de iis sine dubio apud Hag'i Khalfam legentur, cuius hucusque pars tantum publico usui patet. De antiquioribus his libris locuples testis est antiquissimus de Arabum literis scriptor Ibn Abi Yaqub ibn Alnadim, qui in I)i dice scientiarum * quern

scripsit anno 337 (inc. 10 Jul. 948) inter monu- menta literarum Arabicarum etiam peculiari cura egit de libris e linguis Graeca, Persica et Indica conversis;" p. 82.

Haas, whose criticism of the Sumita we have already noticed, having

Muller's refuta- tion of Haas. once taken up the position

of denying the antiquity of Hindu medicine with special regard to the Charaka and the Susruta, was driven to the necessity of dis- counting, nay, explaining away, the numerous references to Hindu works made by Mussul- man writers. This had the effect of eliciting a reply from Miiller, who subjected the Arabic literature bearing on the subject to a

cxn

crucial examination, especially Book XII of Useibia. He finds that not only the Charaka and the Sumita, but also the Nidana and the compendium Asankar,1 a book on Poison by Sanaq the Indian, and another on Warm and Cold, and several other works were ren- dered into Arabic. This German orientalist also arrives at the conclusion that Indian physicians practised at the Court of Bagdad.2 We have now to place before the reader the evidence of a remarkable author

Alberunis evi- dence, —remarkable alike for the depth

of his learning, versatility of his genius, rare impartiality of his judgment and his singular freedom from race-bias.

v Alberuni lived in India from 1017-1030 A. D., and during this long sojourn he mas- tered Sanskrit and studied Hindu mathema-

(1) A Variant has "Astankar," which will be readily identified as the Astanga of Vagbha/a (see p. xlvii.)

(2) " Schon vor Er-Rasid, vielleicht sogar gleichzeitig mit dem

Uebergange indischer Astronomic nach Bagdad. haben sich

auch indische Aerzte in Bagdad eingefunden." (Loc. cit. p. 499). " Arabische Quellen zur Geschichte der indischen Medizin." — " Zeit, deut, morg. Ges. 34, p. 465, "

CX111

tics and philosophy in the original. At a time when his patron, Sultan Mahmud of Ghzni, was busy pillaging the temples in Thaneswar, Mathura, Kanauj and Somnath with the zeal of an iconoclast, this philosophic Moslem was pondering over the Sa;;/khya and the Patanjala, and instituting a compari- son between their contents and those of the " Timaeus " and its commentator, Proclus.

We have elsewhere quoted at length Albe- runi's views on Rasiyana (alchemy) ; it now remains for us to glean such information from him as will throw light on the subject under inquiry. According to Sachau, the learned translator of Alberum, " some of the books that had been translated under the first Ab- baside Caliphs were extant in the library of Alberunf, when he wrote his India, the Brah-v/

masiddhanta or Sindhind the Charaka

in the edition of Ali Ibn Zain and the Parich- tantra or Kalila and Dimna." The fact that the Charaka occupied a place in the library of a cultured Arab affords an additional proof of the esteem in which the Hindu system of

CX1V

medicine was held by the Moslem world. We also learn that " the Christian philoso- pher and physician from Bagdad, Abulkahir Alkhamnour, friend of Albenini, seems to have practised in Ghazni his medical profes- sion" (Sachau). This is significant as indi- cating that both the Greek and Hindu sys- tems held sway side by side ; but more of it anon.1

So far as regards historical evidence. Let

US n°W Se6 ^ internal evi-

Internal evi-

dence. dence could be gathered in cor-

roboration of the former. Reference has already been made to the Book on Poisons by Sanaq the Indian. We shall cite here some parallel passages on the Examihation of Poisoned Food and Drink. These are the chief characteristics as given by Sanaq, the Charaka and the Susruta respectively.

V*(i) " Dietz also in his Analecta Medica proves that the later Greek physicians were acquainted with the medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their medicaments ; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the Indians, quite as

much as that in use among the Greeks." — Royle : " Antiq. Hind. Med." p. 64.

cxv

SAXAQ THE INDIAN THE CHARAKA THE SUSRUTA

The vapor emitted The food is to &> When poisoned by poisoned food has thrown into fire for food is thrown into the colour of the testing- ... the fire, it makes crack- throat of the peacock flame becomes parti- ling sound and the .... when the food coloured like the flame issuing there- is thrown into fire, plume of a peacock, from is tinted like if rises high in the The tongue of the the throat of the air ; the fire makes flame also becomes peacock. — ' " Kalpa," a craclking sound as pointed ; a crackling Ch. i, 27. when salt deflagrates sound is emitted and

the smoke the smell of a putrid

has the smell of a corpse is perceived.

bit nit corpse. Po- . . . Water, milk

isoned drinks : butter and other drinking

milk and thin milk liquids, when mixed

•have a light blue to with poison, have

vellow line. blue lines printed

upon. — " Chikitsa, "

Ch. xxiii, 29-30.

The physician, as superintendent of the kitchen, well-versed in toxicology, is essen- tially an Indian institution. Cf. Susruta, Kalpa, Ch. I. 6-9

Miiller has pointed out the parallelism as shown above. We have, however, added to it the diagnostic test of poisoned food as

CXV1

given in the Charaka, and it will be seen that Sanaq was equally indebted to this authority and to the Soyruta,

The description of leeches as given by Rases agrees almost word for word with that of the Susruta (Sanasrad) in many places.

SUSRUTA

The variety of leeches called Krishna is black in colour and have thick Jieads, Karvurds have their bodies, like that of eels with elevated stripes across their abdomen. Alagardlids have hairs on their bodies, large sides and black mouths, Indrdyudhds have longitudinal nhes along their back, of he colour of the rainboiv.

RASES, QUOTING SANASRAD

Of the leeches one is poi- sonous, ivJiicJi is intensely black like antimony having a large head : and scales like certain fishes and having the middle green : also another upon which are hairs, has a large head and different colour like the rain-bow :

Sdmudrikds are of a dark- yellow colour and have var- iegated spots on their bodies resembling flowers in appear- ance. Gochondands have bi- furcated tails like the two horns of a cow and small heads. When these poison*

CXV11

ot/s leec/ies bite any person, the bitten parts become swollen and very itchy, and fain-ting, fever, burning" of the body, vomiting, mental derangement ancl langour occur, in these cases the medicine called Ma- Jidgada should be administer- ed internally,, applied exter- nally and used as snuff. The bite of the leech called Indrd- viidlia is fatal. Such is the dsscription of the poisonous leeches, and their treatment.

Now the non-poisonous leeches. Their names are as follows : Kapild, Pingald, SanknmnkJii, Musliikd, Pun. dartkamukhl and Sdvarikda

in the colour of which there are lines as in blue-spar, bluestone, azure— -which cften bites : tlience will be caused abscess ivitJi fainting: with coma and relaxing of the joints : nevertheless of these very leeches there is a good one which is assimilated to the colour of water :

Kapild have their sides of the colour of orpiment

in which there

will be greenness having upon it two lines like arsenic [orpi- ment] but light red,

their back smooth and of the colour of the pulse called

CXV111

mudga (PJiaseoslus mungo]. Fingalas have round bodies, move quickly, and are of slightly red or tawny colour. SdnkiihmukJiis are liver- coloured, stick blood quickly, and have large sharp mouths.

oay

coloured and corresponding to the colours of live i^': wliicJi are swift to draw to them- selves fine blood :

Mushikas have the colour and shape of rats and ' a bad smell.

which

are assimilated to the tail [colour] of a mouse: having a horrible smell * * *

Pundarikds have mouths like the lotus and are of the colour of the pulse of Phaseolus mungo. Sdvarikds have green colour like the leaf of the lotus, are functuous, and eighteen fingers in length. They are used only for extracting blood from beasts. Such is the des- cription of the non-poisonous leeches. The non-poisonous leeches are fouud in Turkey, Pdndya (the country to the south), Sahya (a mountain on the banks of the Narbadd]

And having the belly red along with blackness

CX1X

and Pant a n a (the tract of country about Mathuro). Of non-poisonous leeches, those which are stronger and have large bodies, can drink blood rapidly and eat much, are especially free from poison.

and the back green : they are

Leeches which are pro- duced in dirty water and from the decomposition of poison- ous fishes, insects, frogs, urine and foeces are poisonous. Tlwse produced in pure 'water and from the decomposition of the different varieties of the Nelumbiuni Speciositm and the NympJicea lotus and of Saivdla (Blyxa octandra) are non-poisonous.

The vatieties (ANympluva mentioned here are pad ma, tit pal a, kumuda, nalina, kni'alavrt, saugandliika and pundarka.

On this subject there is the following verse : — Non- poisonous leeches go about in the field and fragrant water. The}' do not live in confined

bitter but they will be worse in bad water quite stagnant in which are many small tadpole frogs : nevertheless, t/iev are good in good and excellent water,

cxx

places or lie in mud as they seek comfort. These should be caught by means of wet- leather or some other article. They should be kept in a new large earthen pot filled with mud and water from a tank. Mosses, dried flesh and powdered tubers of water- plants should be given them for food. For bedding they should be furnished with grasses and leaves of water-plants. Fresh water and food should be given every second or third day, and every seventh day the earthen pot should be changed. On the subject there is the following verse :

Leeches which are very thin or thick or with their central portions thick, which move slowly or do not stick to the part to which they are applied, which drink little blood, or whicn are poisonous, are not fit for use. When about to apply leeches on a person who has got a disease curable by them, the patient should be made to sit or lie

also when

they are seized or caught, let them be put away while all that which is in their own belly is being purged ; also they ought not to be put on except in a place not healthy .

CXX1

down. The affected part, if free from pain, should be rub- bed with a little cowdung and earth. The leeches should then be taken hold of and smeared with a mixture of turmeric and mustard reduced to a paste with water. They should then be placed for a while in a cup of water, till they are relieved of their weariness and afterwards ap- plied to the diseased part. \Vhen being applied, their months •should be left open and their bodies covered witli fine white wet rags.

If

they do not bite, a drop of milk or blood should be ap- plied to, or a small incision may be made on the diseased part. If even by these means a leecli cannot be applied, it should be changed for another. A leech is

known to have fixed itself to the part when it raises its shoulder and bends its head like a horse-shoe. \Yhcn fixed it should be covered

also

anointments ought to be »iade around the place with paste that they may not touch the healthy place : also as often as leeches are applied, put over them a fine soaked cloth:

If a leech does not stick let the place be anointed with milk or with blood : if it still refuses to bitet let another be applied in the place of it :

CXX11

with a piece of wet cloth and a little water sprinked on it occasionally. If the part bitten by a leech itches or is painful, it is a sign that the leech is drawing pure blood and it should be removed from the part.

If from fondness for blood but if

it cannot be readily remov- you luish that tliey fall off, ed 3 a little rock-salt should sprinkle their heads {mouths) be sprinkled on its liead. | with salts and keep them in

a jar. f

There is thus unmistakable evidence here of the use of a chapter of the Sumita or some such work.

Then again several drugs, which are re- peatedly mentioned in the Charaka and are almost exclusively Indian products, have been borrowed in the materia medica of Useibiah

f The version of Rases,

| Dutt's Trans. being in the " dog " Latin of the

middle ages, is not always very intelligible to us.

CXX111

and others. The following may be taken as examples : Pepper,1 lac, nard,2 liquorice, assafcetida occimum, sanctum, bdellium, cinnamon, the chebulic myrobalans, calamus acorus, agallacha,3 berberis asiatica, * myrrh, melia azadirechta, calotropis, (asciepias), and red sandal. To quote Gildemeister \^

" Ex. hac Indiae parte asportatur agallochum Kumarense, quod inde nomen cepit." p. 156.

(1) Dioscorides _also mentions the three peppers. Arabian physicians of the tenth century also describe their properties. See Dymock, Warden and Hooper's " Pharmacographia Indira," III. pp. 176-185.

(2) " Nardostachys jatamansi,'' the Nardin of Dioscorides, called also " Gangitis," because the Ganges flowed from the foot of the mountains where the plant grows : ibid II. p. 234.

(3) For the discussion of agallocha (sans. ^If ), see also " Script, arab. de Reb. Ind./' pp. 65-72.

(4) The extract of the wood was also known to the Greeks under the name of Indian Lycium. " Pharm. Ind.," i. 65.

Cf. " Among the strictly Indian products, we have the two kinds of Pepper (long and round), Cardamoms and Ginger (?) . . . . . the "Dolichos," mentioned by Hippocrates and Theo- phrastus, as well as by later authors, is considered to be "Phaseolus Vulgaris, and to have been introduced from India in the time of Alexander." Royle: "Antiquity of Hindu Med.," Lond., 1837,

p. 121.

CXX1V

''Abuldhali Sindius dum Indiae regiones des- cribit, dicit :

( Negarunt quidem sodales mei nee tamen istud praestantissimum est.

'cQuando laudabatur India Indaque sagitta in campo caedis.

" Per vitam meam ! terra est : in quam si pluvia decidit.

" Contingunt- hyacinthi et uniones ei qui moni- libus caret.

" Ibi originem habent muscus et camphora et ambarum et agallochum

" Et aromatum genera, quibus utuntur qui ino- dori sunt.

f' Et odoramentorum species et myristica et spica nardi ;

' Ibi ebur et tectonae lignum, ibi lignum aloes et santalum

" Ibique est tutia mentis instar longissimi." pp. 217-218.

That the Charaka should be changed by Arabic writers into " Sarak," Su^ruta into "Susrud," Nidana into "Badan," Astanga into uAsankar" and so forth, need not at all surprise us. Such transformations can well be ex- plained on phonetic principles. Moreover,

cxxv

one must remember that the Indian works translated into Arabic were sometimes deriv- ed from preexisting Phelvi versions, and in the migrations through successive languages, the names often got frightfully disfigured. A notable instance of this kind is afforded by the fables of Pilpay (Kalila and Dimna J) from which La Fontaine borrowed the idea of several of his fables as he himself acknow- ledges : " I shall only say, from a sense of gratitude, that I owe the largest portion of them to Pilpay, the Indian sage." It has now been made out that Pilpay or Bidpai is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word "vidyapati" (master of learning).

Even long before the time of the Caliphs, India was the favourite resort of the students of medicine and other sciences. Thus Barzouhyeh, a contemporary of the celebrated

(i) " et malgre 1'espece de transformation que

ce livre a du subir en passant de 1'indien en pehlvi, du pehlvi en arabe, de 1' arabe en persan, on y retrouve encore des caracteres

frappans de cette origin " — de Sacy : "Calila et

Dimna ou Fables de Bidpai, (1816), p. 5.

jSassanian king Nashirvan, (A. D. 531-572), visited India to acquire proficiency in the Indian sciences. '

Thomson, Hoefer, Kopp, and Berthelot have done ample justice to

Arabian indebted- ness to India ignor- the claims of the Arabians as

ed by the European . .

historians of che- the originators or, at any rate,

mistry. r . .

as the propagators or alchemy in Europe in the middle ages. M. Berthelot, indeed, has recently shown that the ideas and theories, as regards alchemy, humoral patho- logy and physiology, which were promulgated in the writings of Geber, Rases, Avicenna, Bubacar and others, were essentially Greek in origin, though extended and improved upon by the Arabians. The French savant has, however, presented only one side of the

(i) " que Barzouyeh dans sa jeunesse, avoit

de*ja fait un premier voyage dans \' Inde, pour y rechercher des substances me'dicinales et de simples, et que c'etait dans ce voyage qu' il avoit acquis la connoissance de la langue et de 1 Venture Indiennes " ibid, p. 23.

CXXV11

shield. ' In short, European historians of chemistry have scarcely one word to say on the indebtedness of the Arabians to the Hindus, who contributed not a little to the making of a Rases, a Serapion, or an Avi- cenna, who, in turn, were the chief inspirers of the European iatro-chemists down to the i yth century. 2

Prof. Sachau, the learnedt ranslator and Prof. Sachau, how- editor of Albenini's India,

ever, does justice to

the claims of India. howrever, does justice to the

(1) Cf. " — les Arabes, heritiers et traducteurs de la science grecque." — Berthelot : "La Chimie au moyen age," I., preface, ii. ' Les sciences naturelles furent surtout etudie"es aux ixE et XE siecles, dans la celebre ecole des medecins syriens de Bagdad, attires et proteges par leurs clients. Dioscoride, Galien, Paul d'E'gine furent ainsi traduits du grec en syriaque, puis en arabe ; parfois meme traduits directement dans cette derniere langue/' ibid, iv. " Les califes recherchaient les savants syriens, & cause de

leur habilete me'dicale or toute leur science venait des

Grecs" ibid II., Introduction, iii. I

(2) Speaking of Albert the Great and Roger Bacon. Kopp writes : '' beide haben aus derselben Quelle, den Arabern, ges- rhopft." " Gesch. d. chem." i. 64. Draper equally ignores the contributions of the Hindus : e.g., " The teachers of the Saracens were the Xestorians and the Jews." " Hist. Intell. Dev. of Kurope," Vol. I. p. 384, ed. 1896.

claims of both Greece and India in this res- pect, when he remarks :—

" The cradle of Arabic literature is not Damas- cus but Bagdad, the' protection necessary for its growth being afforded by the Caliphs of the house of Abbas.

V " The foundation of Arabic literature was laid between 750-850 A.D. The development of a large literature with numerous ramifications carried out with foreign materials, as in Rome the origines of the national literature mostly point to Greek sources. Greece, Persia and India were taxed to help the sterility of the Arab mind."

We cannot conclude this chapter better than sum up its substance in the words of Prof. Sachau :—

\1 " What India has contributed reached Bagdad by two different roads. Part has come directly in translations from the Sanskrit, part has travelled through Eran, having originally been translated from Sanskrit ( Pali ? Prakrit ? ) into Persian, and farther from Persian into Arabic. In this way, e.g. the fables of Kalila and Dimna have been com- municated to the Arabs, and a book on medicine, probably the famous Charaka cf. " Fihrist; " p. 303.

CXX1X

" In this communication between India and Bagdad we must not only distinguish between two different roads, but also between two different periods.

" As Sindh was under the actual rule of the ^ Khalif Mansur (A. D. 753-774), there came em- bassies from that part of India to Bagdad, and among them scholars, who brought along with them two books, the "Brahmasiddhanta" of Brahma- gupta (Sindhind), and his " Khandakhadyaka " (Arkand). With the help of these pandits, Alfazari, perhaps also Yakub Ibn Tarik, translated them. Both works have been largely used, and have exercised a great influence. It was on this occasion that the Arabs first became acquainted with a scientific system of astronomy. They learned from Brahmagupta earlier than from Ptolemy.

" Another influx of Hindu learning took place J under Harun, A. D. 786-808. The ministerial family Barmak, then at the zenith of their power had come with the ruling dynasty from Balkh, where an ancestor of theirs had been an official in the Buddhistic temple Naubehdr i. e. navavihdra, the new temple (or monastery). The name Barmak is said to be of Indian descent, meaning paramakq, i. e. the superior (abbot of the vihdra ?). Cf. Kern/'Geschichte des Buddhismus" inlndien, ii, 445,

CXXX1

used all over the world. The influence which the decimal system of reckoning dependent on those figures has had not only on mathematics, but on the progress of civilisation in general, can hardly be over-estimated. During the 8th and gth centuries the Indians became the teachers in arithmetic and algebra of the Arabs, and through them of the nations of the West. Thus, though we call the latter science by an Arabic name, it is a gift we owe to India."

We have thus far attempted to present our readers with a brief, hurried and neces- sarily imperfect survey of the gradual evolu- tion and development of Hindu medicine and alchemy from the Vedic age onward. We hope we have been justified in dividing this entire range into four distinct periods, each characterised by fairly well defined features. There are of course no sharp lines of demar- cation—the one imperceptibly merging into the other. These are (i) The Ayurvedic Period ; (2) The Transitional period ; (3) The Tantric period ; (4) The latro-chemical period.

cxxx (

543. Of course, the Barmak family had been con- verted, but their contemporaries never thought much of their profession of Islam, nor regarded it as genuine. Induced probably by family traditions, they sent scholars to India, there to study medicine and pharmacology. Besides, they engaged Hindu scholars to come to Bagdad, made them the chief physicians of their hospitals, and ordered them to translate from Sanskrit into Arabic, books on medi- cine, pharmacology, toxicology, philosophy, astro- logy and other subjects. Still in later centuries Muslim scholars sometimes travelled for the same purposes as the emissaries of the Barmak, e.g. Almu\vaffak,not long before Alb£runi's time ("Codex Vindobonensis, sive medici Abu Mansur liber fun- damentorum pharmacologiae, ed. Seligmann, Vienna, 1859, PP- 6, 10, and 15, 9."

We shall finish with another appropriate extract from Prof. Macdonell's recent work l :—

" In Science, too, the debt of Europe to India So also Prof. nas been considerable. There is

Macdonell. Jn the first place> the great fact

that the Indians invented the numerical figures

(i) " Hist. Sans. Lit." p. 424.

cxxxnr

We shall now proceed to give a rough ac- count of the chemical knowledge of each period — -a more detailed description, especially of the Tantric period, being reserved for the second volume.

The flyurvedic Period

(From the pre=Buddhistic Era to circa 800 A. D. )

The Constitution and Properties of Matter : the Atomic Theory

IT is not our purpose to discuss in the present volume the theories dominating Hindu medicine and, incidentally, chemistry. A concise preli- minary summary of some of the salient features of the Sarakhya and VaLreshika systems of philo- sophy is, however, absolutely needed in order to follow with advantage the excerpts given in this book from the Charaka, the Susruta and other works. In connection with this, it would also be interesting to compare the indebtedness of Hip- pocrates to the doctrines of Parmenides, Em- pedocles and other philosophers of the same school.1

(i) "CEuvres d' Hippocrate " by E. Littre, Paris, 1839, Tome i. Intro, pp. 13 et seq. In connection with this chapter

HINDU CHEMISTRY

Ka^ada, the founder of the Vaiyeshika system, chiefly occupied himself with the study of the pro- perties of matter. The atomic theory, as pro- pounded by him, has many points in common with that of the Greek philosopher Democritus. His theory of the - propagation of sound cannot fail to excite our wonder and admiration even at this distant date. No less remarkable is his statement that light and heat are only different forms of the same essential substance. But Kawada is anticipated in many material points by Kapila, the reputed originator of the Sa/wkhya philosophy. With the purely metaphysical aspects of these systems we are not concerned here. Their theories of matter and its constitution alone fall within the scope of our present enquiry. We shall now briefly refer to some of their doctrines.

The Sawkhya, in common with other systems of Hindu philosophy, teaches that salvation in after-life is only attainable by perfect knowledge. According to Kapila, there are three sources of knowledge which consists in right discrimination of the perceptible and imperceptible principles

the reader may also consult Gomperz' ''Griechische Denker", vol. I. ed. 19,03, specially the articles : "Die Aerzte " pp. 221-254, and " Die Atomistischen Physiker ", pp. 254-298. .

•HINDU CHEMISTRY 3

of the material world from the immaterial soul.

rHe enumerates these principles to be twenty-five

in number. For our present purpose, however a

few of these only come within our purview. These

we will present to our readers in the inimitable

language of Colebrooke, whose masterly exposition

of Hindu thought, though written nearly four

scores of years ago, still retains its value and

: authoritative stamp1 : —

TANMATRAS OR PARTICLES.

" Five subtile particles, rudiments, or atoms, denominated Tanmatras ; perceptible to beings of 'a superior order, but unapprehended by the grosser senses of mankind : derived from the conscious principle, and themselves productive of the five grosser elements, earth, water fire, air, and space.

FIVE ELEMENTS.

"Five elements, produced from the five ele- mentary particles or rudiments, ist. A diffused,

(i) Trans. Royal As. Soc., Vol. i pp. 19-43 and pp. 92-118 The European student who wishes to pursue the subject further may consult Max Miiller's " Six Systems of Indian Philosophy " in which an ample and exhaustive bibliography will be found.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

ethereal fluid (aka^a), occupying space : it has the property of audibleness, being the vehicle of sound, derived from the sonorous rudiment or ethereal atom. 2nd. Air, which is endowed with the pro- perties of audibleness and tangibility, being sensible to hearing and touch ; derived from the tangible rudiment or aerial atom. 3rd. Fire, which is invested with properties of audibleness, tangibility and colour ; sensible to hearing, touch and sight : derived from the colouring rudiment or igneous atom. 4th. Water, which possesses the properties of audibleness, tangibility, colour and savour ; being^ sensible to hearing, touch, sight and taste ; derived from the savoury rudiment or aqueous atom. 5th. Earth, which unites the properties of audibleness tangibility, colour, savour and odour ; being sensible- to hearing touch, sight, taste and smell ; derived from the odorous rudiment or terrene atom.

ANIMATED ATOM.

"The notion of an animated atom seems to be a compromise between the refined dogma of an immaterial soul and the difficulty which a gross understanding finds in grasping the comprehension of individual existence, unattached to matter.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

GROSSER BODY.

"The grosser body, with which a soul clad in its subtile person is invested for the purpose of fruition, is composed of the five elements, or of four, excluding the ethereal, according to some authorities ; or of one earth alone, according to others. That grosser body, propagated by gener- ation, is perishable. The subtile person is more durable, transmigrating through successive bodies, which it assumes, as a mimic shifts his disguises to represent various characters."

We now come to the treatment of the subject by Ka^ada in his famous Vai^eshika system. Here also we are indebted to Colebrooke for the fol- lowing summary. Kawada arranges the objects of sense in six categories, viz., substance, quality, action, community, difference and aggregation. According to him : —

"I. Substance is the intimate cause of an aggregate effect or product : it is the site of qualities and of action ; or that in which qualities abide, and in which action takes place.

"Nine are enumerated, and no more are re- cognised. Darkness has been alleged by some

HINDU CHEMISTRY

philosophers ; but it is no substance ; nor is body a distinct one ; nor gold which the Mima/Tzsakas

affirm to be a peculiar substance. "Those specified by Ka^ada are :

EARTH.

"i. Earth, which besides qualities common to- most substances ( as number , quantity, indivi- duality, conjunction, disjunction, priority, poste- riority, gravity, fluidity and faculty of velocity and of elasticity), has colour, savour, odour and feel or temperature. Its distinguishing quality is smell ; and it is succinctly defined as a substance odorous. In some instances, as in gems, the smell is latent : but it becomes manifest by calcination.

"It is eternal, as atoms ; or transient, as aggre- gates. In either, those characteristic qualities are transitory, and are maturative, as affected by light and heat : for by union with it, whether , latent or manifest, form, colour, taste, smell and tem- perature are in earth 'of any sort annulled, and other colour etc. introduced.

"Aggregates or products are either organised

bodies/ or organs of perception, or unorganic masses.

'Organised earthly bodies are of "five sorts.

The , organ of smell is terreous. Unorganic masses

HINDU CHEMISTRY

are stones, lumps of clay, -etc. The union of integrant parts is hard, soft or cumulative as stones, flowers, cotton, etc.

WATER.

"2. Water, which has the qualities of earth ; excepting smell, and with the addition of viscidity. Odour, when observable in water is adscititious, arising from mixture of earthy particles.

"The distinguishing quality of water is coolness. It is accordingly defined as a substance, cool to the feel.

"It it eternal, as atoms ; transient, as aggregates. The qualities of the first are constant likewise ; those of the latter inconstant.

"Organic aqueous bodies are beings abiding in the realm of Varu?za. The organ of taste is aqueous : witness the saliva. Unorganic waters are rivers, seas, rain, snow, hail, etc.

"It is by some maintained that hail is pure water rendered solid by the supervention of an unseen virtue : others imagine its .solidity to be owing to mixture of earthly particles,

LIGHT.

"3. Light is coloured, and illumines other substances; and to the feel is hot: which is its

HINDU CHEMISTRY

distinguishing quality. It is defined as a substance hot to the feel. [Heat, then, and light are identi- fied as one substance.]*

"It has the qualities of earth except smell, taste, and gravity. It is eternal, as atoms ; not so, as aggregates.

"Organic luminous bodies are beings abiding in the solar realm. The visual ray, which is the organ of sight, is lucid. Unorganic light is reckoned fourfold : earthy, celestial, alvine and mineral. Another distinction concerns sight and feel ; as light or heat may be either latent or manifest, in respect of both sight and feel, or differently in regard to either. Thus fire is both seen and felt ; the heat of hot water is felt but not seen ; moonshine is seen, but not felt ; the visual ray is neither seen nor felt. Terrestrious light is that, of which the fuel is earthy, as fire. Celestial is that of which the fuel is wratery, as lightning and meteors of various sorts. Alvine is that of which the fuel is both earthy and watery : it is intestinal, which digests food and drink. Mineral is that which is found in pits, as gold. For some maintain that gold is. solid light ; or, at least that

* The sentence under bracket is Colebrooke's own.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

the chief ingredient is light which is rendered solid by mixture with some particles of earth. Were it mere earth, it might be calclined by fire strongly urged. Its light is not latent, but overpowered by the colour of the earthy particles mixed with it. In the Mimamsa, however, it is reckoned as a distinct substance, as before observed. "* After giving an account of air and ether etc., Colebrooke proceeds with Kawada's

(i) The term "element " was not generally used in the modern sense of a component of a compound ; rather it connoted certain pro- perties characteristic of matter, e.g., coldness, dryness, heaviness, fluidity etc., thus it referred to certain qualities in the abstract. The Greek philosophers also held similar, if not identical, views. Cf. " Empedokles und die moderne Chemie." pp. 185-86 of 41 Griechische Denker " by Gomperz vol. i, ed. 1903. The following extract will also throw much light on the subject : " The four so-called " elements" — air, water, earth and fire — were regarded by that intellectually great philosopher, Empedocles of Agrigent (about 440 B.C.), as the basis of the world ; but neither he himself nor Aristotle, who adopted these into "his system of natural philosophy, looked upon them as different properties carried about by one original matter. Their chief qualities (the primes qualitates of the later scholastics) he held to be those apparent to the touch, viz., warm, cold, dry, and moist. Each of the four so-called elements is characterised by the posses- sion . of two of these properties, air being warm and moist,

jo HINDU CHEMISTRY

CONCEPTION OF THE SIMPLE, BINARY, TERTIARY, .AND QUATERNARY ATOMS.

" Material substances are by Ka^ada considered to be primarily atoms ; and secondarily, aggegates. He maintains the eternity of atoms ; and their existence and aggregation are explained as follows :

" The mote, which is seen in a sunbeam, is the smallest perceptible quantity. Being a substance and an effect, it must be composed of what is less than itself ; and this likewise is a substance and an effect ; for the component part of a substance that has magnitude must be an effect. This again must be composed of what is smaller ; and that smaller thing is an atom. It is simple and uncom- posed ; else the series would be endless : and, were it pursued indefinitely, there would be no difference of magnitude between a mustard seed

water moist and cold, earth cold and dry, and fire dry and warm. The differences in the material world were, therefore, to be ascribed to the properties inherent in matter.

* * * *

" Aristotle considered that his four elements were insufficient in themselves to explain the phenomena of nature ; he therefore assumed a fifth one, termed ov'via, which he imagined to possess

HINDU CHEMISTRY 11

and a mountain, a gnat and an elephant, each alike containing an infinity of particles. The ultimate atom then is simple.

"The first compound consists of two atoms: for one does not enter into composition ; and there is no argument to prove, that more than two must, for incohation, be united. The next consists of three double atoms ; for, if only two were con- joined, magnitude would hardly ensue since it must be produced either by size or a number of patircles : it cannot be their size and, therefore, it must be their number. Nor is there any reason for assuming the union of four double atoms, since three suffice to originate magnitude. The atom then is reckoned to be the sixth part of a mote visible in a sunbeam.

" Two earthly atoms, concurring by an unseen peculiar virtue, the creative will of God, or time, or other competent, cause, constitute a double atom of earth ; and, by concourse of three binary atoms, a tertiary atom is produced ; and by

an ethereal or immaterial nature and to permeate the whole world. As the "quinta essentia" this played an immense role among the followers of the Aristotelian doctrine in the Middle Ages, and gave rise to endless confusion, from the endeavours of many (who, unlike Aristotle; supposed it to be material) to isolate it.

12 HINDU CHEMISTRY

concourse of four triple atoms, a quaternary atom ; and so on, to a gross, grosser, or grossest mass of earth : thus great earth is produced ; and in like manner, great water from aqueous atoms ; great light, from luminous ; and great air, from aerial. The qualities that belong to the effect are those which appertained to the integrant part, or primary particle, as its material cause ; and con- versely, the qualities wThich belong to the cause are found in the effect.

"The dissolution of substances proceeds in- versely. In the integrant parts of an aggregate substance resulting from composition, as in the potsherds of an earthen jar r action is induced by pressure attended with velocity, or by simple pressure. Disjunction ensues; whereby the union, which wras the cause of incohation of members, is annulled ; and the integral substance consisting of those members, is resolved into its parts,

" There seems to be a high degree of probability in the assump- tion that Empedocles and Aristotle did not themselves deduce their theory of the elements, but derived it from other sources ; thus the oldest writings of India teach that the world consists of the four elements mentioned above, together with ether, which last is most likely related to Aristotle's o'vvta—* Meyer's " Hist, of Chem". Eng. trans, ed. 1898. pp. 7-8.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 13

and is destroyed : for it ceases to subsist as a whole.

QUALITY OF THE SUBSTANCE viz., COLOUR, SAVOUR, ETC.

'* II. Quality is closely united with substance j not, however, as an intimate cause of it, nor consis- ting in motion ; but common : not a genus, yet appertaining to one. It is independent of conjunc- tion and disjunction ; not the cause of them, not itself endued with qualities,

" Twenty-four are enumerated. Seventeen only are, indeed, specified in Kawada's aphorisms ; but the rest are understood.

" i. Colour. It is a peculiar quality to be ap- prehended only by sight ; and abides in three substances ; earth, water, and light. It is a charac- teristic quality of the last ; and, in that, is white and resplended. In water it is white, but without lustre. In the primary atoms of both it is perpetual ; in their products, not so. In earth it is variable ; and seven colours are distinguished : viz. white, yellow, green, red, black, tawny (or orange) and variegated. The varieties of these seven colours are many, unenumerated. The six simple colours occur in the atoms of the earth ;

14 HINDU CHEMISTRY

and the seven, including variegated, in its double atoms, and more complex forms. The colour of integrant parts is the cause of colour in the integral substance.

" 2 Savour. It is a peculiar quality, to be

•apprehended only by the organ of taste ; and abides

.in two substances, earth and water. It is a

characteristic quality of the last ; and in it is sweet.

.It is perpetual in atoms of water ; not so in aqueous

products. In earth it is variable, and six sorts

are distinguished : sweet, bitter, pungent, astringent,

acid, and saline.

"3. Odour. It is a peculiar quality, to be ap- prehended only by the organ of smell ; and abides .in earth alone, being its distinguishing quality. In water, odour is adscititious, being induced by union with earthy particles ; as a clear crystal appears red by association with a hollyhock, or other flower of that hue. In air also it is adsciti- tious : thus a breeze, which has blown over blossoms, musk, camphor, or other scented subs- tances, wafts fragrant particles of the blossoms, etc. The flowers , are , not torn, nor , the musk diminished ; because the. parts are replaced by a reproductive unseen virtue. However, camphor other volatile substances do waste.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 15

GRAVITATION.

"12. Gravity is the peculiar cause of primary •descent or falling.

"It affects earth and water. Gold is affected by this quality, by reason of earth contained in it.

"In the absence of a countervailing cause, as .adhesion, velocity, or some act of volition, descent results from this quality. Thus a cocoanut is withheld from falling by adhesion of the foot- stalk ; but, this impediment ceasing on maturity .of the fruit, it falls^

" According to Udayana Acharya, gravity is imperceptible, but to be inferred from the act of falling. Vallabha maintains that it is perceived in the position of a thing descending to a lower situation.

LEVITY.

"Levity is not a distinct quality, but the negation of gravity.

FLUIDITY.

"13. Fluidity is the cause of original trickling. "It affects earth, light and water. It is natural and essential in water ; adscititious in earth and

16 HINDU CHEMISTRY

light ; being induced by exhibition of fire in molten substances, as lac, gold etc.

"Fluidity is perceptible by external senses, sight and touch.

"In hail and ice, fluidity essentially subsists, but is obstructed by an impediment arising from an unseen virtue which renders the water solid.

VISCIDITY.

14. "Viscidity is the quality of clamminess and cause of agglutination. It abides in water only. In oil, liquid butter, etc., it results from the watery part of those liquids.

SOUND.

"15. Sound is a peculiar quality of the ethereal element, and is to be apprehended by the hearing, It abides in that element exclusively and is its characteristic quality. Two sorts are distinguish- ed : articulate and musical.

THEORY OF THE PROPAGATION OF SOUND.

"To account for sound originating in one place being heard in another, it is observed, that sound is propagated by undulation, wave after wave,

HINDU CHEMISTRY 17

radiating in. every direction, from a centre, like the blossoms of a Nauclea. . It is not the first, nor the intermediate wave, that is the sound heard : but the last that comes in contact with the organ of hearing: and therefore it is not quite correct to say, that a drum has been heard. Sound originates in conjunction, in disjunction, or in sound itself. The conjunction of cymbals, or that of a drum and stick, may serve to exemplify the first. It is the instrumental cause. The rustling of leaves is an instance of disjunction being the cause of sound. Jn some cases, sound becomes the cause of sound. In all, the conformity of wind or its .calmness is a concomitant cause : for an adverse wind obstructs it. The material cause is in every case the ethereal fluid : and the conjunction of that with the sonorous subject is a concomitant cause."

It .now only remains for us to furnish a precis of the atomic theory of Karcada in the words of Max Miiller :

A/vus OR ATOMS.

" What is thought to be peculiar to Kawada, nay the distinguishing feature of his philosophy, is the theory of Anus or Atoms. They take the

2

i8 HINDU CHEMISTRY

place of the Tanmatras in the Samkhya philosophy. Though the idea of an . atom is not unknown in the Nyaya-philosophy (Nyaya Siitras, IV. 2, 4-25),. it is nowhere so fully worked out as in the Vaiseshika. ^ Kawada argued that there must be somewhere a smallest thing that excludes further analysis. Without this admission, we should have a regressus ad infinitum, a most objectionable process in the eyes of all Indian philosophers. A mountain, he says, would not be larger than a mustard seed. These smallest and invisible particles are held by Ka^ada to be eternal in themselves, but non-eternal as aggregates. As aggregates again they may be organised organs, and inorganic. Thus the human body is earth organised, the power of smelling is the earthly organ, stones are inorganic.

"It is, no doubt, very tempting to ascribe a Greek origin to Ka^ada's theory of atoms. But suppose that the atomic theory had really been borrowed from a Greek source, would it not be strange that Ka^ada's atoms are supposed never to assume visible dimensions till there is a com- bination of three double atoms (Tryawuka), neither the simple nor the double atoms being supposed to be visible by themselves. I do not

HINDU CHEMISTRY 19

remember anything like this in Epicurean authors, and it seems to me to give quite an independent character to Kawada's view of the nature of an atom. <-

" We are told that water, in its atomic state, is eternal, as an aggregate transient. Beings in the realm of Varuwa (god of the sea) are organ- ised, taste is the watery organ, rivers are water inorganic."

"Light in its atomic state is eternal, as an ag- gregate transient. There are organic luminous bodies in the sun, sight or the visual ray is the luminous organ, burning fires are inorganic.

"Air, again, is both atomic and an aggregate. Beings of the air, spirits, etc., are organised air ; touch in the skin is the aerial organ, wind is in- organic air. Here it would seem as if we had something not very unlike the doctrine of Empedocles. But though we may discover

the same thought in the philosophies of Karcada and Empedocles, the form which it takes in India is characteristically different from its Greek form."1

(i) " Indian Philosophy ", pp. 584-85.

20 HINDU CHEMISTRY

DATES OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SUTRAS — THE QUESTION OF PRIORITY.

As regards the dates of the philosophical sutras, nothing definite is known ; here, as in the subsequent portions of our history, we have to depend largely upon constructive chronology.

We quote below two short extracts from Professor Max Miiller's "Indian Philosophy" which sum- marise all the information available at present on the subject :

"If we consider the state of philosophical thought in India such as it is represented to us in the Brahma^as and Upanishads, and afterwards in the canonical books of the Buddhists, we cannot wonder that all attempts at fixing the dates of the six recognised systems of philosophy, nay even their mutual relationship, should hitherto have failed. It is true that Buddhism and Jainism were likewise but two philosophical systems out of many, and that it has been possible to fix their dates. But if in their case we know something about their dates and their historical development, this is chiefly due to the social and political import- ance which they acquired during the fifth, the

HINDU CHEMISTRY 21

fourth, and the third centuries E>. C., and not simply to their philosophical tenets. We know also that there were many teachers, contemporaries of Buddha, but they have left no traces in the literary history of India.

**#,#,#

"We cannot be far wrong therefore if we assign the gradual formation of the six systems of philosophy to the period from Buddha (5th century) to Asoka (third century), though we have to admit, particularly in the cases of Vedanta, Sawkhya and Yoga, a long previous development reaching back through Upanishads and Brahmawas to the very hymns of the Rig Veda.

"It is equally difficult to fix the relative posi- tion of the great systems of philosophy, because, as I explained before, they quote each other mutually. With regard to the relation of Bud- dhism to the six orthodox systems it seems to me that all we can honestly say is that schools of philosophy handing down doctrines very similar to those of our six classical or orthodox systems are presupposed by the Buddhist Suttas." (pp. 116 — 120)

As regards the question of priority, we shall also take the liberty to quote below from Prof.

22 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Macdonell's "History of Sanskrit Literature" :

"Turning to Philosophical Literature, we find that, the early Greek and Indian Philosophers have many points in common. Some of the leading doctrines of the Eleatics, that God and the universe are one, that everything existing in multiplicity has no reality, that thinking 'and being are identical, are all to be found in the philosophy of the Upanishads and the Vedanta system, which is its outcome. Again, the doctrine of Empedocles, that nothing can arise which has not existed before, and that nothing existing can be annihilated, has its exact parallel in the characteristic doctrine of the Sawkhya system about the eternity and indestructibility of matter. According to Greek tradition, Thales, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Demo- critus, and others undertook journeys to Oriental countries in order to study philosophy. Hence there is at least the historical possibility of the Greeks having been influenced by Indian thought through Persia.

"Whatever may be the truth in the cases just mentioned, the dependence of Pythagoras on Indian philosophy and science certainly seems to have a, high degree of probability. Almost all the doctrines ascribed to him, religious, philoso-

HINDU CHEMISTRY 23

phical, mathematical were known in India in the sixth century B. C. The coincidences are so numerous that their cumulative force becomes con- siderable. The transmigration theory, the assump- tion of five elements the Pythagorean theorem in geometry, the prohibition as to eating beans, the religio-philosophical character of the Pythagorean fraternity and the mystical specu- lations of the Pythagorean school, all have their close parallels in ancient India. The doctrine of metempsychosis in the case of Pythagoras appears without any connection or explanatory background and was regarded by the Greeks as of foreign origin. He could not have derived it from Egypt, as it was not known to the ancient Egyptians. In spite, however, of the later tradition, it seems impossible that Pythagoras should have made his way' to India at so early a date, but he could quite well have met Indians in Persia."1

(i) " History of Sanskrit Literature " pp. 421 — 22. Colebrooke himself sums up his views in these words : — "I should be disposed to conclude that the Indians were in this instance teachers than learners." " Trans. Roy. As. Soc.," Vol. i., p. 579. Prof. H. H. Wilson observes : — "that the Hindus derived any of their philo- sophical ideas from the Greek seems very improbable, and if there is any borrowing in the case, the latter were most probably indebted to the former." Preface to the Sdwkhya Karika (1837) p. ix. , ,

n

Chemistry in the Charaka and the Sus ruta THE CHARAKA

[The subject-matter in the first few extracts in this chapter is practically based upon the Vaiseshika system ; see ante pp. 6 et seq.~]

THE TASTES— THE METALS AND THEIR CALCES

"The object of the tongue is taste. Water and earth are the objective existences in which taste inheres. In its manifestation and as regards par- ticular kinds of it, space, air and light are also its adjuncts. Sweet, sour, salt, pungent, bitter and astringent, these are regarded as the sixfold cata- logue of tastes. * * * Objects are again known to be of three kinds, viz., animal products, vege- table products and products appertaining to the earth. Honey, vaccine, secretions, bile, fat, marrow, blood, flesh, excreta, urine, skin, semen, bones, tendons, horns, nails, hoofs, hair, bristles and

HINDU CHEMISTRY 25

the bright pigment called Gorochand,1 are used (as drugs) among animal products. Gold, the five metals and their ordure [i.e. their calces, the five metals viz., silver, copper lead, tin and iron], sand, lime, red arsenic, gems, salt, red chalk and antimony, are indicated as drugs appertaining to the earth."2

A DISCOURSE ON THE TASTES — THEIR RELATIONSHIP

TO THE FIVE PRIMAL ELEMENTS — THE

NATURE OF THE ALKALI

"Once on a time, the son of Atri, and Bha- drakapyas .Sakunteya and the full-eyed Maudgalya, and the golden-eyed Kau^ika, the sinless Bharadvaja otherwise called Kumara^iras, the blessed king Vary- ovida, that foremost of all intelligent men Nimi, the ruler of the Viafehas, Vaafoa of high intelligence, and Kawkhayana-valhika, that foremost of all physicians of the Valhika country, — these 7?/shis, all of whom were old in years and learning and all of whom had subjugated their souls, came together to the delightful Chaitraratha woods, desirous of passing a few days in enjoyment

(1) Concretions found in the gall bladder of the ox.

(2) A. C. Kaviratna's Translation of "Charaka Samhita," pp. 6-7.

26 HINDU CHEMISTRY

and pleasure. As those fiishis conversant with every, topic .were seated there, the following discourse of grave import took place among them on the subject of the proper ascertainment of the (different) tastes .and food.

"There is one kind of taste said Bhadrakapya; which persons skilled in the subject regard as are of the five subjects of the senses, viz., that which relates to the tongue. That, again, is not different from water.

"The Brahmawa ^akunteya said there are two tastes, their virtues being that one of them cuts or removes from the body all bad humours or ingre- dients, and the other only checks or curbs them.

"There are three tastes, said the full-eyed Maudgalya. Their virtues are cutting, curbing, and both.

"There are four tastes, said the golden-eyed Kau^-ika. They are agreeable and beneficial, and agreeable and non-beneficial, disagreeable and beneficial.

"There are five tastes, said Kumara^ira- Bharadvaja. They appertain to Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether (or Space).

"There are six tastes, said the royal, sage

HINDU CHEMISTRY 27

Varyovida. They are heavy, light, cold, hot, oily and dry.

"There are seven tastes, said Nimi, the ruler of the Videhas They are sweet, sour, saltish, pungent, bitter, astringent and alkaline.

"There are eight tastes, said Va^a-Dhamargava. They are sweet, sour, saltish, pungent, bitter, astringent, alkaline and that which remains in an unmanifest form.

"The tastes are infinite in number, said Kaw- khayana, foremost among the physicians of the Valhika country, in consequence of .the infinite variety of their virtues, operations or effects and methods of corrections (or mixture for adding to their virtues, etc.,).

"The illustrious son of Atri, viz., Punarvasu, said that the number of tastes is truly six. They are sweet, sour, saltish, pungent, bitter and astrin- gent. The source from which these six flow, i. e. their origin, is water. Their operations or effects are of two kinds, viz., cutting and curbing. In consequence, again, of mixture or combination, they become both cutting and curbing at the same time. Agreeable and disagreeable are their divisions that depend upon the likes and dislikes of men. Beneficial and non-beneficial are their

28 HINDU CHEMISTRY

powers. The refuge of the tastes are the modi- fications of the five primal elements (of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether or Space). The tastes, again, depend upon the (original) nature of their refuge, the modifications of that refuge, combina- tions of the substances that form their refuge, as also place, and time. x

"The virtues or properties (attaching to the tastes) occur in those which constitute the refuge (of the tastes), called objects. Those virtues are heavy, light, cold, warm, oily, dry and others.

"Kshara (alkali) is so called from its being produced by ksharana (dropping down or straining). This is not a taste. It is, on the other hand, an object. It is, in fact, produced from many kinds of taste. Hence, it has many tastes. Among them, pungent and saline predominate. It is composed of many objects of the senses. It is manufactured with the aid of different processes.

(i) The modifications of the five primal elements constitute the refuge of the tastes. Every substance is formed by modifi- cations of those elements. What is said, therefore, is that material substances are the refuge of the tastes, i.e. the tastes inhere in them.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 29

"At the outset, however, we shall say something referring to the diversity of objects (which are the refuse of the tastes). All objects are the results of the combinations of five primal elements (viz., Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether or Space). As regards Medical Science, object are of two kinds, •viz., those endowed with animation and those that are inanimate. The attributes which inhere in objects are sound, &c., heaviness &c., ending with solubility."1

We now quote only a few typical instances of mineral and metallic preparations.

THE FIVE KINDS OF SALTS

"The five kinds of salts viz., sauvarchala, sain- dhava, vit, audbhida, with samudra." [See Index under the respective headings] .

MINERALS FOR EXTERNAL APPLICATION

"Sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, realgar, orpiment and sulphur in combination with vege- table drugs are prescribed for external application in ringworm, eczema, leprosy, &c.,"a

(1) Kaviratna's Trans., pp. 295-99.

(2) Sutra, Ch. Ill, 4-5.

30 HINDU CHEMISTRY

THE EIGHT VARIETIES OF URINE

"The eight varieties of urine are those of the sheep, the goat, the cow, the buffalo, the elephant, the camel, the horse and the ass."

PREPARATION OF KSHARA (ALKALI)

"A joung butea frondosa is to be cut to pieces and dried and finally reduced to ashes. The ash is to be lixiviated with four or six times its weight of water and strained (through linen) 21 times."2

PILL IRON COMPOUND

"Into the composition of pill iron compound pyrites and the rust of iron enter." 3

A COLLYRIUM

"The ingredients of a collyrium are conch-shell, coral, lapis lazuli, iron, copper, the bone of the

(1) Ibid, Ch. I, 43.

(2) Chikitsa/Ch. XXIII, 26.

(3) Ibid, Ch., XVI 28.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

frog, sulphide of antimony and the seed hyper- anthera morunga."1

[The first five articles are interpreted as mean- ing the calces thereof.]

POWDER OF PEARL COMPOUND

"Among the constituents we have, pearl, sul- phur, powder of iron, copper and silver."2

[The text does not precisely say whether the metals are to be used as such or as killed by being roasted with sulphur. The Hindu physicians however always take them in the latter sense.]

IRON, GOLD AND SILVER TONICS

"A thin iron plate is to be made red hot and plunged into the decoction of the myrobalans, cow's urine, the solution of 'the salts", the solution of the alkali extracted from the ash of butea frondosa \ i.e. made red hot and plunged into one of the above liquids at a time. When the iron becomes black like collyrium it is to be powdered. * * *

(1) Ibid, Ch, XXVI, 123.

(2) Chikitsa, Ch. XVII, 40.

The references are according to the edition of Kavirajes D. N_ Sen and U. N. Sen.

32 HINDU CHEMISTRY

"The same process to be adopted in the case of gold and silver."1

RASAYANA DEFINED

"Medicines are of two kinds : the one promotes the strength and vitality of the healthy, the other cures diseases.

''Whatever promotes longevity, retentive me- mory, health, virility, &c. is called Rasayana."2

THE SUSRUTA

PREPARATION AND USE OF ALKALIES AND ALKALINE CAUSTICS. 8

"Of all cutting instruments and accessory cutting instruments, caustics are superior inasmuch as they perform the work of incisions, punctures and scarifications, relieve derangements of the three humours, viz., air, bile and phlegm, and uniformly affect the diseased part to which they are applied. Kshara (caustics) are so called

(1) Chikitsa Ch. I. 5, pp. 497-98.

(2) Ibid Ch. I. pp. 2-6.

(3) We have adopted Udoy Chand Dutta's Translation of Chs. XI and XIV with certain corrections here and there.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 33

because they remove diseased parts and destroy the skin and flesh. From being composed of numerous medicines they can affect the three humours. Caustics being white in colour are cooling or of lunar origin.1 This origin is not inconsistent with their burning, escharotic and lacerating pro- perties. Being composed of numerous heating medicines, caustics are acrid, hot and pungent. They promote suppuration, destroy parts, improve unhealthy sores and promote granulation, dry up discharge, stop bleeding and abrade the skin. Their internal use removes worms, acidity, phlegm, skin diseases, some poisons and corpulence. Their •excessive use causes impotence.

" Alkalies are of two sorts, namely, for external application and internal administration. They are used externally in the skin diseases called kustha, in keloid, ringworm leucoderma, lepra, fistula-in- ane, tumours, unhealthy ulcers, sinuses, condyloma, moles, chloasma, brown spots on the face, warts, external inflammations, worms, poisons and piles, and in the seven following diseases of the mouth

(i) The reader will not fail to notice that silver nitrate is, in the language of Western Alchemy, named lunar caustic.

3

34 HINDU CHEMISTRY

namely, upajihvd (ranula), adhijihvd (tumour on the tongue), upakusa (inflammation of the gum), danta- vaidarbha (inflammation of the gum from injury), and the three sorts of rohinl or inflammation of the throat. In these diseases of the mouth, accessory instruments, in the shape of caustics only, should be used. Alkaline solutions are administered internal- ly in chronic or slow poisoning, abdominal tumours,, ascites, loss of appetite, indigestion, disinclination for food, tympanitis, urinary deposits, calculi, inter- nal or deep-seated inflammation, intestinal worms, poisoning and piles. Alkalies do not agree with children, old and weak people, and persons having a tendency to haemorrhage from internal organs, or a bilious temperament. They are injurious in fever,, giddiness, intoxication, fainting, amaurosis and such other diseases.

" Alkalies for escharotic use are prepared like other alkalies by straining alkaline solutions as else- where explained in detail. They are made of three strengths, namely, weak, moderate and strong. He who wishes to prepare alkalies should in an auspi- cious day in autumn, fasting and in pure body, select a middle-aged, large-sized, uninjured ghantdpdtali tree with black flowers (Schrebera swietenioides) growing on an approved spot on a mountain, and

HINDU CHEMISTRY 35

address it with certain mantras or incantations as a preliminary ceremony called adhivdsa. Next day the tree should be cut or killed after reciting the fol- lowing mantra or prayer : " Oh you with great fiery power may not thy strength be lost ! Oh you auspicious tree, stay here and accomplish my work. After accomplishing my work you will go to heaven." Then the ceremony of homa, or burning the sacri- ficial fire, should be performed with one hundred red flowers. The tree should then be cut to pieces and piled in a place free from wind. Some limestone should be placed on the pile which should be set on fire by stalks of Scsamum Indicum. When the fire is extinguished, the ashes of the ghantdpdtali tree and the burnt lime should be kept separate. In the same way the following trees may be burnt with their root, branches, leaves and fruits for the preparation of alkalies,1 namely :

Kutaja Hollarrhena antidysenterica.

Pala^a Butea frondosa.

A^vakarwa Shorea robusta.

Paribhadraka Erythrina indica.

Vibhitaka Terminalia bellarica.

(i) Cf. Rasanzava, below, where the standard " plant ashes ' are enumerated.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

Aragvadha Cassia fistula.

Tilvaka Symplocos racemosa.

Arka Calotropis gigantea.

Snuhi Euphorbia neriifolia.

Apamarga Achyranthes aspera.

Patala Stereospermum suaveolens.

Naktamala Pongamia glabra.

Vrisha Justicia adhatoda.

Kadali Musa sapientum.

Chitraka Plumbago' zeylanica.

Putika Guilandina bonducella.

Indravriksha Terminalia arjuna.

Asphota Salvadora* persica.

Asvamaraka Nerium odorum.

Saptachchhada Alstonia scholaris.

Agni mantha Premna se-rratifolia.

Gunja Abrus preoatorins. 4 sorts of Ko^a 4 varieties of Luffa amara."

LlXIVIATION OF THE ASHES

<( Thirty two seers of ashes should be stirred or mixed with six times their quantity of water or cow's urine and the mixture strained through cloth. This should be repeated twenty-one times. The strained fluid should then be boiled slowly in a large pan and agitated with a ladle. When the fluid becomes clear.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 37

pungent and soapy to the feel, it should be removed from the fire and strained through cloth. The fil- trate1 being thrown away, the strained fluid should be again boiled. From this alkaline solution take three quarters of a seer."

RENDERING THE ALKALI CAUSTIC

"Then take eight palas each of Banduc nut, burnt limestone, conch shells, and bivalve shells and heat them in an iron pan till they are of the colour of fire. Then moisten them in the same vessel with the above-mentioned three- quarters of a seer of alkaline water and reduce them to powder. This powder should be thrown on sixty-four seers of the alkaline water and boi ed with constant and careful agitation by the ladle. Care should be taken that the solution is neither too thick nor thin."

How TO STORE UP THE ALKALI

"When reduced to proper consistence, the solution should be removed from the fire and poured into an iron jar. The opening or mouth of

(i) This is evidently a mistake. According to the original text, it should be "the dregs" i. e. the precipitate.

38 HINDU CHEMISTRY

the jar should be covered, and should be kept in a secluded place. This preparation is called madhyama kshara or alkaline caustic of middling strength. When the alkaline water is simply boiled to the proper consistence without the addi- tion of burnt shells, &c., the preparation is called mridu J kshara or weak alkaline solution. The strong alkaline caustic is prepared by boiling the wreak solution with two tolahs each in fine powder of such of the under-mentioned ingredients as are available, namely : —

Danti, Baliospermun montanum.

Dravanti Salvinia cucullata.

Chitraka Plumbago zeylanica.

Langaliki Gloriosa superba.

Putika Guilandina bonducell.

Kanaka Salvinia cucullata.

Kshiri Cleome felina.

Vacha Acorus calamus.

11 Aconite root, carbonate of soda, asafcetida, black salt and corals.

" This solution is used for bringing to a head or opening abscesses. These three varieties of alka-

(i) "Mridu" may be rendered more accurately as " mild."

HINDU CHEMISTRY 39

lies should be used according to the state of the disease. In weak persons, the alkaline water with- out the addition of other caustic ingredients, should be applied to strengthen the parts."

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOOD AND THE BAD ALKALI

On this subject there are the following verses : " Good alkaline caustics should be neither too strong nor too weak. They should be white in colour, smooth and soapy to the touch, should not spread beyond where they are applied, and act rapidly and successfully. These are the eight good properties of caustics. Their bad qualities consist in their being too weak or cool, too strong or hot too slippery and spreading, too thick or too under- boiled, or they may be deficient in ingredients.

" In applying caustic to a patient suffering from a disease curable by this remedy, he should be made to sit in a spacious place, protected from wind and sun. The physician should then procure the ins- truments or necessary articles according to the rules laid down in the fifth chapter. He should then exa- mine the diseased part, rub, scarify or scratch it, and then apply the caustic by means of a probe, and

40 HINDU CHEMISTRY

wait for the space of time required to utter one hundred words. The diseased part turns black on the application of the caustic which is a sign of its having been burnt. The application of some acid mixed with clarified butter or honey relieves the pain. If from the thickness of the burnt part, it does not fall off, the following application should be thoroughly applied to it, namely, equal parts of tamarind pulp, of the refuse of kdnjika (fermented rice water i.e. crude vinegar), sesamum seeds and liquorice root rubbed together into a paste. Sesamum seeds and liquorice root rubbed together with clarified butter promotes granulation in ulcers."

WHY THE ACID NEUTRALISES THE ALKALI

" If you question, my son ! how is it that the application of the pungent acid of kdnjika relieves the burning of the fire-like hot alkaline caustic, then hear the following explanation from me. Alkalies possess all the tastes except that of the acid. The acrid taste prevails in it and the saline one to a less degree ,(cf. ante p. 28). The sharp .saline taste when mixed with acid becomes very mild, and gives up its sharp quality. From this modification of the saline taste, the pain of caustics is relieved just as fire is extinguished by water."

HINDU CHEMISTRY 41

MILD AND CAUSTIC ALKALIES

It will be noticed that there is a distinct mention of " mild " and " caustic " alkalies in the body of the text. The process of lixiviating the ashes and ren- dering the lye caustic by the addition of lime leaves very little to improve upon, and appears almost scientific compared to the crude method to which M. Berthelot pays a high tribute :

" Fabrication de la Lessive : — Quatre muids de cendres sont repartis entre deux cuviers, perces de trous au fond. Autour du trou le plus petit, du cote interieur, mets une petite quantite de foin, pour que la cendre n'obstrue pas le trou. Remplis d'eau le premier des cuviers ; recueille le liquide filtre qui en decoule pendant toute la nuit et mets-le dans le second cuvier ; grade ce qui filtere de ce second cuvier. Mets d'autre cendre (dans un troisieme cuvier). Epiuse-la et il se forme une liqueur pareille au nard couleur d'or. Verse-la dans un quatrieme cuvier. La liqueur devient piquante et forte : telle- est la lessive particuliere." " Coll. d. Alch. Grecs" III. trad. p. 357.

We reproduce the remarks of M. Berthelot on the above : " On a regarde comme modernes les precedes de lixiviation methodique, usites pour

42 HINDU CHEMISTRY

exprimer les cendres et les materiaux salpetres : le passage suivant, tire du manuscrit de Saint-Marc, montre que ces precedes remontent au Xle siecle et sans doute au dela."-" Chimie des Anciens " p. 284.

DESCRIPTION OF BLOOD (Chapter XIV of Sdtrasthanam)

"The four varieties of food derived from the five -elements and having the six tastes, the two pro- perties of heat and cold or according to some, eight properties and many qualtities when taken in moder- ation and thoroughly digested, produces a fine substance imbued with energy and fire. This is •called rasa (chyle). The heart is the seat of the rasa or chyle. From the heart it proceeds through 24 arteries, namely, ten ascending, ten descending, and four transverse to all parts of the body. By .some unseen cause or destiny, this chyle continually satiates, increases, nourishes and supports the body and keeps it alive. The motion of this chyle throughout the body is inferred form the processes of decline, increase, and diseased condition of the •different portions of the body. It may be asked whether this chyle which pervades all the external parts of the body, the three humours, the tissues,

HINDU CHEMISTRY 43

including the blood and the receptacles of the secretions, is endowed with the property of heat or cold. As this chyle is a circulating fluid, and as it softens, vitalises, supports and nourishes the body, it should be known to possess the cooling property. This watery fluid no doubt assumes a red colour in the liver and spleen, that is, it is converted into blood in these organs. On this subject there is the following verse :

" The rasa (chyle) of living beings is coloured red by healthy bile. This coloured fluid is called blood. The blood excreted by women and called the menstrual fluid is derived also from this rasa. This menstruation, coming at the age of twelve, ceases at the age of fifty.

" The menstrual fluid is endowed with the pro- perty of heat, owing to the womb being possessed of both the properties of heat and cold. Other writers say that the blood of living beings is composed of the five elements. The five qualities of the five elements as seen in blood are as follows, namely, fleshy smell, liquidity, red colour, tendency to trickle or ooze, and lightness.1 Blood is produced

(i) Cf. ante pp. 6-7 under Vai-seshika Philosopy.

44 HINDU CHEMISTRY

from chyle, flesh from blood, fat from flesh, bones from fat, marrow from bones, and lastly the semen is produced from marrow. The chyle produced from food and drink nourishes these constituent parts of the body. Living beings are produced from the rasa ; hence sensible people should carefully preserve this rasa by conforming to the proper rules of diet and regimen."1

ON THE COLLECTION OF DRUGS (Chapter XXXVIII : Sutrashanam)

37 classes of vegetable drugs are mentioned which chiefly constitute the Materia Medica. There is only one sloka in which the six metals viz., tin, lead copper, silver, krish^aloha (iron) and gold, and their calces are recommended.

THE SALTS

Rock-salt, sea-salt, bit, sauvarchala, romaka and audbhid, &c. (see ante p. 29)..

(i) The reader may compare the above theories on the Chemistry and Physiology of Digestion and Nutrition with those of Geber. Vide " Traite* d'Alchimie Arabe, " trad. pp. 201-3.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 45

THE ALKALIES

Yavakshara (factitious carbonate of potash), sarjikakshara J (trona or natron) ; the alkaline solution prepared according to directions given in Ch. XI ; and borax.

Internal administration of alkali is recommend- ed for dissolving the stones or gravels (urinary calculi).

INTERNAL USE OF LEAD AND TIN

Lead and tin are described as vermifuge — a property also accepted by the later latro-chemists.

Powdered tin rubbed for seven days together with the creamy portion of curd is recommended for internal administration.

MINERALS FOR EXTERNAL APPLICATION

For the treatment of ulcer an external applica- tion of sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, orpiment and realgar, &c., is prescribed.

(i) From the time of the Charaka and the Susruta, Hindu Pharmacy has always recognised these two alkalies as distinct.

46 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Another recipe includes alum-earth, red-ochre, sulphate of copper, yellowish (basic) sulphate of iron, rock-salt, orpiment and realgar. l

ROASTING OF IRON AND OTHER METALS, so AS TO RENDER THEM FIT FOR INTERNAL

ADMINISTRATION.

Thin leaves of cast iron are to be smeared with the levigated powder of " the salt " and heated in the fire of the cow-dung cakes and then plunged into a decoction of the myrobalans and asafcetida. This process is to be repeated 1 6 times. The leaves are then to be ignited in the fire of the wood of mimosa catechu and afterwards finely powdered and passed through linen of fine texture.

The above process is equally applicable to the roasting of the other metals. a

THE ORIGIN OF BITUMEN

The origin of bitumen is much the same as in the Charaka and the Bower Ms. ; the only difference

(1) Chikitsitasthanam Ch. XIX, 37, ed. J. Vidyasagara.

(2) See Note on the " Metals and their Salts " p. 48

HINDU CHEMISTRY 47

being that, according to Siumta, bitumen is related to six instead of four metals (see below p. 53).

IRON PYRITES

Iron Pyrites are collected on the bank of the river Tapi, of the lustre of gold and silver respec- tively (see below under " Rasaratnasamuchchaya ", Bk. II, 77-81 and prescribed in the treatments of diabetes, leprosy, &c.

GOLD DUST

Gold dust, mixed with lotus seed, honey, &c. is used as a tonic.

THE POISONS

The Poisons are classified as animal, vegetable and mineral respectively. Under the last we have Phenasma bhasma1 and orpiment.

(i) It is sometimes taken to mean white arsenic ; " but it is very doubtful if Susruta meant any native white arsenic by it. The derivation of the term implies that it was obtained by roasting some .sort of stone or ore. " Dutt.

48 HINDU CHEMISTRY

USE OF MERCURY

The only references to mercury, which are how- ever very vague, are CTTT:

r. ; and : ^ *T: i

NOTE ON THE METALS AND THEIR SALTS J

Six metals are recognised, namely : tin, iron, lead, copper, silver and gold.2 The thin leaves of the metals by being plastered over with a paste of " the salts " (see p. 46) including common salt, •salt-petre and sulphate of magnesia and after- wards subjected to roasting were no doubt convert- ed into their respective oxides, chlorides or oxy- chlorides as the case may be. We have thus in

(i) ^I

\

iT*raiftrJrcT?nf*r * * * ^^^ir> ^I^?T i Chikit., en. x)9-

(2) a^t^^I^ ^ft¥T^t ^^I»?l Chikit., Ch. XIII, 3.

SS^TOTOraii^ftS^tf1! » Sutra., Ch.

XXXVIII, 56.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 49

the Siumta a crude and imperfect, but all the same potentially modern, process for the preparation of the metallic salts. The much reputed " potable _gold " in the shape of the chloride of the metal was probably in this way obtained. It will be interesting to note the successive stages in the evolution of the chemical processes as we proceed. (See below especially under " Chemistry in Rasar- ^ava," where the mixture of the salts is technically named " vi<^a " and consists of green vitriol, alum, -common salt, salt-petre, &c.).

The reader will find an analogy in the ancient Egyptian and Greek methods as preserved in the Leyden Parchment, one or two extracts from which cannot fail to be of interest. It may be added by way of explanation that mineral acids being un- known to the ancients they had often to take recourse to the roundabout way of heating metals in combination with a mixture of blue vitriol, cop- peras, common salt and so on (see under " Mineral Acids") in order to get their salts.

'" Ayant pris quatre paillettes d'or, faites-en une lame, chauffez-la et trempez-la dans de la couperose broyee avec de 1'eau et avec une autre (couperose) seche, battez (une partie)...une autre avec la matiere melangee: deversez la rouilleetjetez dans..."

4

50 HINDU CHEMISTRY

" II y a la deux recettes distinctes. Dans toutes deux figure le sulfate de cuivre plus ou moins fer- rugineux, sous les noms de chalcanthon ou couperose et de sory. La seconde recette semble un fragment mutile d'une formule plus etendue. La premiere presente une grande ressemblance avec une formule donnee dans Pline pour preparer un remede avec Tor, en communiquant aux objects torrefies avec lui une propriete specifique active, designee par Pline sous nom de virus

...ce qui complete le rap- prochement entre la formule de Pline et celle du papyrus. Voici les paroles de Pline :

" On torrefie 1'or dans un vase de terre, avex deux fois son poids de sel et trois fois son poids de misy ; puis on repete 1'operation avec 2 parties de sel et i partie de la pierre appelee schiste. De cette facon, il donne des proprietes actives aux substances chauffees avec lui, tout en demeurant pur et intact. Le residu est une cendre que 1'on conserve dans un vase de terre."

" Pline ajoute que Ton emploie ce residu comme remede. L'efficacite de 1'or, le plus parfait des corps, centre les maladies et contre les malfices est un vieux prejuge. De la, au moyen age, Tidee de I'or potable. La» preparation indiquee par Pline

HINDU CHEMISTRY 51

devait contenir less metaux etrangers a Tor, sous forme de chlorures ou d'oxychlorures. Ren- fermait-elle aussi un sel d'or ? A la rigueur, il se pourrait que le chlorure de sodium, en presence des sels basiques de peroxyde de fer, ou meme du bioxyde de cuivre, degageat du chlore, susceptible d'attaquer Tor metallique ou allie, en formant du chlorure d'or, ou plutot un chlorure double de ce metal. Mais la chose n'est pas demontree. En tous cas, Tor se trouve affine dans Toperation precedente."1

(I) "Coll. des Anciens Alch. Grecs," Vol. I., pp. 14-15.

CK A F T EH III

Chemistry in the Bower Ms.

THE ALKALIES

The alkalies in the Bower Ms. are the two carbonates of potash and soda. (Yavakshara and Sarjikakshara)

FUMES OF HORN

The fumes of horn are recommended as giving relief in hiccough. [Practically the same as " spirits of hartshorn."]

KSHARATAILA

" Oil, boiled with the ashes of long pepper, is a remedy for ear diseases" (Pt. ii. fasc. ii. p. 131). [Cf. The formula given in Chakrapam (see p. 63)]

FORMULA FOR HAIR-DYE

Sulphates of copper and iron, boiled with the oil of belleric myrobalans * * * are used as a

HINDU CHEMISTRY 53

remedy for turning grey hair into black (ibid ; p. 162).

RASAYANA DEFINED

It is called Rasayana because it has a beneficial effect on Rasa or chyle and other elements of the Dody. Cf. p. 32.

THE DOCTRINE OF BITUMEN*

Bitumen is produced from the following four metals : Gold, copper, silver and iron. Gold and other metals in the mountains, when heated by the sun, emit their impurities, oil-like, heavy and clay- like : these are the bitumen.

A LiNCTUS

With certain vegetable drugs and " riparian sulphide of antimony,"2 a linctus is made up with honey into a paste. (Pt. ii. fasc. n. p. 123)

(1) The whole of this chapter, in a practically identical recen- sion, is found in the Charaka. See Bower Ms., Pt. II., fasc. ii., ch. xii., p. 167.

(2) Srotaja anjana ; it is one of the five kinds of anjana or substances used for collyriums. The word literally means pro- duced from a river, especially from the Yamuna. See Garbe's "Indische Mineralien," p. 54.

54 HINDU CHEMISTRY

FORMULA FOR EYE-OINTMENT

Red ochre, rasot, galena, realgar, calx of brass ( 'ftfclliS* ) in equal parts. %.

With pepper and calx (of brass) one should boil gold on a slow fire together with clarified butter.1

(2) The Bower Ms., Pt. I., verses no and in.

Chemistry in the Vagbhata.

A typical example is contained in the following recipe :

Sulphate of copper, red ochre, realgar, orpiment sulphate of iron, &c., are recommended for external application for genital sores.

PREPARATIONS OF GOLD, SILVER, COPPER, IRON AND LEAD

Gold, copper, silver, iron or tin are to be taken with the myrobalans, rock-salt and honey, &c.

Gold, silver, copper and iron are to be taken in conjunction with bitumen and milk.

Take 64 parts of stibium1 and one part each of

(i) " ^tcTl^l" " Srotonjana is evidently stibnite or the native sulphide of antimony (See p. 53) ; Dutt translates it, we know not on what grounds, as calx-spar.

56 HINDU CHEMISTRY

copper, iron, silver and gold ; now roast them ia a closed crucible, &C.1

Take 30 parts of lead, 5 parts of sulphur, 2 parts of copper and orpiment each, I part of tin and 3 parts of stibium. Now roast them in a closed crucible.2

[Here as well as in the preceding j-loka, we have distinct mention of ti^^i or a crucible with the lid on. This is one of the preparations which cart be brought into line with those of the Tantric and latro-chemical periods.]

PREPARATION OF ALKALI AND CAUSTIC

ALKALI3

[As Vagbha^a borrows his method of preparation of alkali almost word for word from SuiTuta, it is quite superfluous to reproduce it here.]

(1) Uttarasthanam, Ch. XIII, p. 20-21.

(2) Ibid, Ch. XIII, p. 31-32.

(3) Siitra., Ch. XXX.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 57

USE OF MERCURY

Take equal parts of mercury and lead and make them up into a collyrium with their equal weight of stibium and camphor.1 [This is perhaps the only instance in which the mention of mercury is found.]

(i) "Uttarasthanam," Ch. xin, 36. This very formula, with ht variations, occurs also in Rasaratnasamuchchaya, Ch.

but slight variations, xxiii, 46

The Transitional Period

(From 800 A.D. to circa 1100 A.D.)

Chemistry in the Siddha Yoga of Vrinda and in Chakrapanf

VRINDA

(Circa 900 A, D.)

PREPARATIONS IN WHICH SULPHIDE OF COPPER AND

yExmops MINERAL FIGURE

Sulphur, copper and the pyrites are to be pounded together with mercury and subjected to roasting in a closed crucible and the product thus obtained to be administered with honey. This is known as " parpati tamraw.1 "

(i) This preparation does not occur in the Poona edition, but is to be found in the Kasmir Ms. under

HINDU CHEMISTRY

59

Take one part of sulphur and half its weight of mercury [The components to be rubbed together.] ........................ The same to be administered

with honey and clarified butter. This is called " rasamr/ta churwaw.1 "

Quicksilver, rubbed with the juice of dhatura s. or piper betle, and applied externally, kills lice. (Poona ed. p. 122.)

A COLLYRIUM

Compounded of 14 ingredients amongst which occur the belleric myrobalans, rock-salt, killed copper and blue vitriol — all in the powdered form. (Poona edition, p. 470.)

This very preparation, in identical recension, occurs in Chakrapawi under the name of " Nag. arjuna Varti. "

A PROCESS OF KILLING IRON

The, text which occurs only in the Kaj-mii Ms. under w?i*nfa«irrc: i unfortunately in a i^'iti-

lated from," would seem to indicate that the iron is

(i) Vide K&smfr Ms. under ^H3fq*ufa^n*:, omitted in the Poona edition.

60 HINDU CHEMISTRY

to be first ignited in the fire and then macerated in the juice of the emblic myrobalan, and trewia nudiflora and exposed to the sun, and again to be macerated in the juice of certain other plants and then to be rubbed in a mortar.

CHAKRAPANI

(Circa 1060 A. D.)

BLACK SULPHIDE OF MERCURY (KAJJALI) or

Mineral

The first process consists in the purification of mercury.

" Quicksilver, rubbed repeatedly in the juice expressed from sesbania aculeata, ricinus com- munis, zingiber and solanum nigrum, becomes purified."

"Take one part of mercury and one part of sulphur, rub the two together in a mortar and thus prepare kajjali or rasaparpati?"

(i) Chakrapawi himself claims its discovery or at any rate its introduction : ^qmlj-fT ^Tcff fa^T ^tfiqifalT I Vr/nda, however, recommends its use as well.

62 HINDU CHEMISTRY

TAMRAYOGA (LIT. POWDER OF COPPER COMPOUND)

11 Take a thin leaf of Nepalese copper and embed it in powdered sulphur. The substances are to be placed inside a saucer-shaped earthen-ware vessel and covered with another. The rims are luted with sugar or powdered rice-paste. The apparatus is heated in a sand-bath for three hours. The copper thus prepared is pounded and administered with other drugs. "

PROCESS OF KILLING IRON

" I shall now describe the science of iron as promulgated by the sage Nagarjuna." [A tedious process given with wearisome minutiae of which the substance only is reproduced below.]

A bar of iron is to be rubbed with the levigated powder of the following vegetable products among others : the belleric myrobalans, clitoria ternatea, vitis quadrangular is, boharhaavia diffusa and verbesina calend. It is then strongly heated to the fusion point and plunged into the decoction of the myrobalans. The iron is then powdered by being beaten with an iron hammer. The powder

HINDU CHEMISTRY 63

is then digested in the decoction of the myrobalans and roasted repeatedly in a crucible.

MANDURA OR RUST OF IRON.

Rust of iron is prescribed in combination with other drugs.

RECIPE FOR A SOAP TO BE USED AS A DEPILATORY.

The ashes of schrebera swiet. and cassia fist. are to be mixed with lime from burnt shells and lixiviated with the urine of the ass. The lye is then to be boiled with a definite weight of mustard oil-

PREPARATION OF CAUSTIC ALKALI

[Much the same as in the Su.yruta]

CALX OF SILVER

In a preparation named " yogaraja " ^^TfloT or calx of silver (probably in the shape of sulphide) figures as a component.

The Tan trie Period

( From 1000 A. D. to circa 1300 A.D.

Chemistry in Rasarnava

[InRasarwava, as in all other Tantras, know- ledge is imparted in the shape of a dialogue be- tween Bhairava (5"iva) and his consort Parvati.]

EXTRACTS FROM BOOK IV — ON APPARATUS

AND THE COLOUR OF FLAMES

Sri Bhairava said :

"The rasas, the uparasas (see p. 79), the metals, a piece of cloth, vu/am (see p. 72), a pair of bel- lows, iron implements, stone pestles and mortars, the apparatus known as Kosh^i (see p. 69), mouth blow pipe * * cow-dung, substantial wood (as fuel), various kinds of earthen apparatus (e.g. crucibles &c.), a pair of tongs and earthen and iron vessels, weights and balances, bamboo and iron

HINDU CHEMISTRY 65

pipes, the fats, the acids, the salts and the alkalies, the poisons— all those are to be collected and chemical operations begun," .

DOLA YANTRA^

As R. R. S.1 borrows the description of this apparatus verbatim, it is unnecessary to repeat it here.2

AN APPARATUS FOR KILLING METALS

" Make two iron crucibles each 12 digits in length, the one with a narrow orifice containing .sulphur is inserted into the other holding mercury ; below the mercury is placed water [in a separate vessel]. The mercury and the sulphur should be carefully moistened in garlic juice, which has been filtered through a cloth. The apparatus is now lodged in an earthen pot and another placed over it, the rims being luted with cloth previously smeared with earth * * now cow-dung fire is urged. After continuing heating for three days

(1) R. R. S. is the abbreviation for ' Rasaratnasamuchchaya."

(2) See Book ix. of R. R. S.

5

66 HINDU CHEMISTRY

the apparatus is taken out." [This description, in almost identical recension, occurs in R. R. S. under the name of anrmiq^m. The language is faulty and the meaning not very clear.]

GARBHA YANTRA^

" I shall now describe the Garbha Yantra^? for reducing pistikd l to ashes. Make a crucible 4 digits in length, and 3 digits in width, with its mouth rounded. Take 20 parts of salt and one of bdellium and pound them finely, adding water frequently ; rub the crucible with this mixture. Make a fire of paddy husks and apply gentle heat. In the course of one to three days the mercury is reduced to ashes." {Vide Illustrations.]

EFFICACY OF THE APPARATUS

" For killing and colouring mercury, an ap- paratus is indeed a power. Without the use of

(i) A cake of mercury and sulphur.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 67

herbs and drugs, mercury can be killed with the aid of an apparatus alone ; hence an expert must not disparage the efficacy of the apparatus."

HA^/SAPAKA YANTRA.W

"Take an earthen dish and fill it with sand and place another over it ; apply gentle heat. Now digest in this apparatus [the ingredients] with the five- alkalies (cf. pp. 45 and 69), the urines (see p. 30), and the "vi^a" (see p. 72). This is known as Hawsapaka Yantraw by the adepts:"1

CRUCIBLES

" Earth of black red, yellow and white colour * burnt husks of paddy, soot, earth from the ant-hill, well burnt excrements of the goat and the horse * * rust of iron "

[varying proportions of the above ingredients are used for making crucibles, retorts, &c.]

" There are two kinds of crucibles, viz., open and covered (lit. blind) * * * the covered one

(i) R. R. s. has borrowed the descriptions of Garbha Yantraw and Hamsapaka Yantraw.

68 HINDU CHEMISTRY

resembles the nipple of a cow and is fitted with a lid, which has a raised head.

" For the purification of silver, the crucible is best made of two parts of the ashes of schrebera swietenoides, and one part each of brick dust and earth,"1

COLOUR OF FLAMES

" Copper yields a blue flame that of

the tin is pigeon-coloured ; that of the lead is pale- tinted* that of the iron is tawny; ...that of the

11 peacock " ore (^asyaka) is red."8

TEST OF A PURE METAL

" A pure metal is that which, when melted in a crucible, does not give off sparks nor bubbles, nor spurts, nor emits any sound, nor shows any lines on the surface, but is tranquil like a gem.4

(1) The porous crucible is of the nature of a "cupel".

(2) Cf. "Lead compounds impart a pale tint to the non- luminous gas flame." (Roscoe and Schorlemmer.)

(3) The reading in the Mss. seems to be defective.

(4) Or in modern phraseology shows ''signs of tranquil fusion.'

HINDU CHEMISTRY 69

KosHn APPARATUS

" For extracting the essence of metals a kosh^i apparatus [Vide Illustrations] is preferred, which is 1 6 digits in width and 2 cubits in length."

COLOPHON TO CHAPTER IV.

" Here ends Chapter fourth of Rasarwava, which treats of apparatus, crucibles and the colour of flames."

THE ALKALIES

" The three alkalies are the borax, trona (natron) and Yavakshara (carbonate of potash). The ashes of sesamum, achyranthes aspera, musa sapientum., butea frondosa, moringa pterygos- perma, mochika, (schrebera swietenioides) f raphanus sativus, zingiber officinale, tamarindus indicus and ficus relig., respectively are regarded as the standard plant ashes (a^anT:) I VII. 12-13

THE MAHARASAS

"Bhairava said : — "makshika, vimala, .sila, cha- pala, rasaka, ^asyaka, darada (p. 78) and sroton-

7Q HINDU CHEMISTRY

jana, — -these are the eight maharasas." [Vide p. 79 and "Explanatory Notes on Minerals."] VII. 2-3

COPPER FROM THE PYRITIES.

" Makshika, repeatedly soaked in honey, oil of ricinus communis, urine of the cow, clarified butter and the extract of the bulbous root of musa sapien- iuni) and heated in a crucible, yields an esse'nce in the shape of copper.'1 VII. 12-13

" Vimala, digested with alum, green vitriol, borax and the watery liquid expressed from moringa pter., musa s., and finally roasted in a covered crucible in combination with the ashes of schreb-era swiet, yields an essence in the shape of chandrarkct (lit. copper of gold-like lustre.)"

Chapala : [See under R. R. s. Bk. ii.] VII. 20-21

BRASS FROM GALA-MINE AND COPPER MISTAKEN FOR GOLD.

" Rasaka: There are three, kinds of it; namely of yellow colour, of the appearance of treacle, and

(i) R. R. s. has borrowed this description and added some more characteristics of the mineral, from : which it would appear that " Vimala " is also a variety of pyrjtes. [Vide JR. R. s. Bk. ii.]

HINDU CHEMISTRY 71

of the colour of stones. What wonder is it that Rasaka mixed with [certain organic matters] and roasted three times with copper converts the latter into gold ?" VII. 31-34

EXTRACTION OF ZINC FROM CALAMINE. Rasaka, mixed writh wool, lac, T. chebula and

borax and roasted in a covered crucible, yields an essence of the appearance of tin : of this there is no doubt." VIL 37-38

.Sasyaka. VII. 41-44

[These couplets have been borrowed word for word by R. R. S. Vide Bk. ii ; hence repetition is unnecessary.]

SAURASHTRI.

Saurashtri, alum, distillation of : (See under R. R. S., which has also borrowed this description -verbatim.} VII. 73-74

THE METALS.

" O goddess ! listen now to what I say about the metals.

72 HINDU CHEMISTRY

'' Gold, silver, copper, .iron, tin and lead' these are the six metals and their resistance to waste [/. e. rusting] is in the order in which they have been mentioned." VII. 89-90

THE KILLING OF METALS — "VLDA."

" Hear attentively as I shall now speak of the killing of metals.

" There is no such elephant of a metal which can- not be killed by_ the lion of a sulphur." VII. 138-148

Bhairava said : " Kasisa1, rock-salt, the pyrites, sauvira*, the aggregate of the three spices8, sulphur, saltpetre, the juice expressed from malati* — all these moistened with ,the juice . of the root of moringa pter., makes a viafa, which would kill all [the metals]." IX. 2-3

" Sulphur, orpim'ent, sea-salt, salt, sal-ammoniac, borax — these digested with the ashes and the urines, give rise to another kind of vi^/a." *

* Having thus collected the

ingredients, O goddess ! begin the chemical opera- tions. I have told you all, what more do you want to hear ?" IX. 4-20

(i) Green vitriol. (2) Stibnite. (3) namely, black pepper, long pepper and dry ginger. (4) Echites caryophyllata, Rox.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 73

PURIFICATION OF QUICKSILVER.

r Quicksilver rubbed with the juice of the afore- said plants (vide original text) and distilled seven times, becomes pure."

" Quicksilver, made into a paste by being rubbed with copper and subjected to distillation, leaves behind tin and lead [with which they are often adulterated] and becomes pure." X. 55-56

KILLING OF MERCURY.

" Green-vitriol, alum, salt, borax, mixed with the aforesaid vegetable drugs, (vide original text),, kill mercury in an instant [in the shape of calo- mel."] XI. 24

KILLING OF GOLD

" Salt-petre, green vitriol, sea-salt, rock-salt mustard, borax, salammoniac, camphor, the pyrites — all these are to be taken in equal parts. The crucible is to be smeared with the milky juice of euphorbia neriifolia and asclepias glgantea ; then,, -having added the powder of the aforesaid "vu/a,"

the gold is to be killed, my beloved !"

XL 83-84

HINDU CHEMISTRY

TESTS FOR KILLED MERCURY •,

" When the mercury assumes divers colours after having given up its fluidity, it is known as swooned ; killed mercury is that which does not show signs of fluidity, mobility and lustre."

XL 197-198

COLOURING OF METALS

" Iron, lead, and copper are coloured by means of calamine — the whole turns into gold." (Cf. VII. 31-34.) XII. 50

" Mercury is composed of the five elements and represents Siva, himself." II. 78

"Take one pala of the ash of mercury and rub it with the same weight of sulphur and roast the mixture in a covered crucible : thus we get vermil- ion of the colour of the rising sun." XVI. 81

" Take the vitriol which is of the colour of the throat of the peacock, saffron, calamine, as also the excrement of a young calf, the poisons, powdered plumbago zeylanica, all in equal pro- portions, rub them with the acids and dry in the shade. Having added honey to the above mixture,

HINDU CHEMISTRY 75

smear it on a thin sheet of lead. When roasted in a covered crucible, the lead is coloured in no time ; the lead which is now of beautiful colour is fit for bedecking the persons of the gods."1 XVIII. 70-74

(l) Refers probably to the "gold-like alloy used by watch- makers" into the composition o which copper, zinc and lead enter. See Roscoe and Schor., 1 1. p: 494, ed. 1897.

The latro-Cbemical Period

(From 1300 A. D. to circa 1550 A. D.)

Chemistry in Rasaratnasamuchchaya

BOOK I

Salutation to him — the excellent, the greatest physician of the world by the nectareous ocean of whose benign glance, resplendent with brilliance, born of everything that is joyous and auspicious and which acts like unfailing elixir, the diseases of his devotees, such as birth, death, old age and worldly attachment, are cured in an instant.1 i

(i) The salutation is strictly Buddhistic and is on all fours with the opening lines of Vagbha/a's Ashtangarhndaya and of Amara- kosha, both of which are known to be by Buddhist authors ; cf. also Lalitavistara :

at fa«t I vii. p. 123, R. L.

> Mitra's ed

xii> p- J5o.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 77

Adima, A Chandrasena, Lanke^a, BLmrada, Kapali, Matta, Mandavya, Bhaskara, Siirasenaka, Ratnako^a, Sambhu, Sattvika, Naravahana, Indrada. Gomukha, Kambali, Vya^/i, Nagarjuna, Surananda, Nagabodhi, Ya^odhana, Khanda, Kapalika, Brahma, Govinda, Lampaka and Hari — these are the twenty seven experts on Alchemy as also Rasawkusa, Bhairava, Nandi, Svachchhanda- bhairava, Manthanabhairava, Kakachanduvara, Vasudeva, /?/shyajringa, the compiler of alchemy, the ascetic Rasendratilaka, Bhaluki, who has got the appellation of Maithili, Mahadeva, Narendra, Ratnakara and Haruvara. 2-7

This treatise on well-tried mercurials and minerals, named ''Rasaratnasamuchchaya," adapted to the treatment of diseases, is being compiled by the son -of Si?«hagupta, after having consulted the works of the aforesaid adepts and others. It will treat of mercury, the minerals and the metals, the construction of the apparatus, the mystical formulae for the purification of the metals, the extraction of the essences (active principles), liquefaction and incineration. 8-10

[Here follows a description of the virtues of mercury and its mythical origin.]

(i) The Benares Ms. reads A'gama.

78 HINDU CHEMISTRY

By partaking of mercury, men are freed from a multitude of diseases, arising out of the sins of former existence — of this there is no doubt. 26

He who falls foul of mercury, which is the generative principle of Siva, will rot in the hell oeon after oson. 29

From the mouth of the God of fire mercury dropped into the country of Darada1 and it has there remained ever so long. The soil of that region, on being subjected to distillation, yields mercury. 89-90

COLOPHON

Here ends Book first of Rasaratnasamuchchaya, composed by Vagbha^a, son of Simhagupta, Prince of Physicians.

(i) Dardistan,the mountainous region about Kasmir, is famous for the ores of cinnabar from which mercury is extracted. Darada is in fact a name of cinnabar. The auriferous region of the Daradas is mentioned by Humboldt (Kosmos u. p. 513 E. C. Otte) who places it either in the Thibetan highlands east of the Bolor chain,, west of Iskardo, or towards the desert of Gobi described also as auriferous by Hiouen Thsang. Regarding Parada and Darada see also Lassen's Alterthumskunde, i. pp. 848-49. It seems pro- bable that- "parada" (quicksilver) and "darada" (cinnabar) owe their names to the countries, from which their supply was obtained.

HINDU CHEMISTRY ;c>

BOOK II

THE RASAS.

[In the Hindu Materia Medica the mineral kingdom is broadly divided into the Rasas and 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 a 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, &c., (see p. 42). Rasakriya1 in the Su^ruta means fluid extract or concentrated decoction. As mer- curial and metallic preparations gradually came into vogue and even began to supplant the vege- table 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 (Cf. /?/g-Veda, "Somarasa" : Vide Intro.) In the Bavaprakaya we

(0

TSfSi'JT fssim^T sfn-ftft sn^TJ ^ I Sutra. Chap. xxxvi, 19.

So HINDU CHEMISTRY

find rasa used in a two-fold sense,' — ancient and comparatively modern. J

In the older works Rasayana (derived from rasa, juice, and ayana, way) means a medicine preventing old age and prolonging life — the Elixir vitoe? Later on Rasayana was almost exclusively applied to the employment of mercury and other metals in medicine and at present it means also alchemy (chemistry). Our author uses the term

Vo1- !> P-

59. ed. Kalisa Chandra Sen Gupta.

In the above sloka, rasa is used in the sense of chyle. Again : —

cfclT Tfl ??T flt^T: ^ *3 ^ig^fq «lci: || ibid. p. 442.

Here "rasa" is used as a synonym of mercury and regarded as a metal.

(3) For the definition of the term Rasayana in the Charaka, seep. 32; cf. also "^Tg^ claUJi 3*3m*nmi«^lST?i*T" Sarn- gadhara. Cf. also : "Dies Wort (rasa} namlich hat nicht nur der rasagnina, d. i. Kenntniss der Safte, einem Kapitel der Medicin, sondern einer Benennung der Alchemic, rasa^astra, dann rasasid- dhi, durch Quecksilber erlangte Vollkommenheit, 'das Vertrautsein mit der Alchemie, sowiedesgl. rasendradarsana (wortl. Untersuch- ung des Safte-Herrschers d. i. Quecksilbers), Lehre der Alchemisten (dieser heisst Rasayana) seinen Namen geliehen und -ausserdam in Compositen einer Menge chemischer Substanzen." — Pott : "Chemie order Chymie ?" "Zeit. deut. Morg..Ges,." xxx. 7

HINDU CHEMISTRY Si

"Rasasiddhipradayaka" (1-5), which is deriviedfrom rasa, mercury, siddhi, accomplishment and pradayaka, giver or bestower, i.e. lit. giver of ac- complishment in mercury i.e. an expert on alchemy. Wilson in his Dictionary thus happily renders Rasasiddhi : " The knowledge of alchemy, the possession of peculiar familiarity with mercury obtained by the performance of chemical operations conjoined with certain mystical and magical rites and the securing thence to the adept of happiness, health and wealth ; the power of transmuting metals .and the art of prolonging life."

With these prefatory remarks, we shall now allow our author to proceed.]

Abhra (mica), Vaikranta, Makshika (pyrites), Yimala, Adrija (bitumen), Sasyaka, Chapala, and Rasaka : these 8 rasas are to be identified and col- lected. [Vide "Explanatory Notes on the Minerals" at the end of Chap. I]1 i

ABHRA There are three varieties of mica, namely,

(i) Rasaruava (p. 69) recognises the following eight minerals : — makshika, vimala, adrija, chapala, rasaka, darada (cinnabar) and srotonjana (stibium).

6

82 HINDU CHEMISTRY

pinakaT/z, nagamandfika;;/ and vajrara and each of these again are of four different colours — white, red, yellow and black. 5-ICr

Mica, the layers of which can be easily detach- ed, is preferred. Mica, which is as bright as the moon and which has the lustre of the rust of iron,, does not take up or combine with (lit. swallow) mercury. That which has taken up mercury can alone be used with the metals and administered in medicine. Mica, which has been killed, is pres- cribed in the treatment of various diseases. The variety which has the lustre of the moon, if taken internally, brings on dyspepsia and urinary dis- orders. 12-14

Mica, heated seven times and plunged into sour gruel or cow's urine or decoction of the chebulic myrobalans or cow's milk, is freed from all impuri- ties. 17-18

Mica, mixed with paddy grains and reduced to powder, tied in a piece of cloth and suspended in sour gruel and then passed through linen, is known as Dhanyabhraw (lit. mica in combination with paddy). Dhanyabhram, rubbed with the juice of cassia sophora and roasted ten times in a closed crucible, is killed thereby. 24.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 83

VAIKRANTA

Vaikranta has eight faces and six angles, is slippery and heavy and of uniform or mixed tint. It has 8 different colours, viz., white, red, yellow blue, with the shades met with in the down of the pigeon, grass-green, black and variegated 55-56

Vaikranta is a powerful tonic and reckoned among the sovereign medicines. It is a destroyer of all (bodily) disorders and is employed in the place of diamond. 57-5$

Vaikranta is purified by being heated three days with the salts and the alkalies or by digestion with the acids, urines or a decoction of dolichos iiniftorus and the plantain or of paspalum scrobi- culatum. It is killed by being roasted in a cover- ed crucible eight times in combination with sulphur and lemon juice and pasp. scrobi. 6j-6fS

Vaikranta, after being heated and plunged into the urine of the horse, ought to be repeatedly roasted and then reduced to ashes. 69

Vaikranta after incineration is substituted for diamond. 70

Macerated in the ashes of schrebera swiet. butea frondosa and cow's urine and mixed with the powdered root of euphorb. antiq., turmeric . . .

84 HINDU CHEMISTRY

borax, powdered lac and made into balls with the milky juice of asclepias gem., and honey and strongly heated in a closed crucible, vaikranta

yields its essence. Of this there is no doubt.

71-72

COPPER PYRITES

Makshikam (pyrities) is born of mountains yielding gold . . and is produced in the bed of the river Tap! and in the lands of the Kiratas, the Chinese and the Yavanas. 77

Pyrites is of two kinds — golden and silvery : the former is a native of Kanouj and is of golden yellow colour. The silvery pyrites is associated with stones and is of inferior quality. 81

Rubbed with the juice of lemons and sulphur and roasted in a closed crucible it is killed. 84

Makshika, repeatedly steeped in honey, oil of the seeds of ricinus communis, urine of the cow, clarified butter and the extract of the bulbous root of musa sapientum and gently roasted in a crucible, yields an essence in the shape of copper. 89-96

VlMALA

Vimala is described as of three kinds according as it has the lustre of gold, silver and brass respec- tively. 96

HINDU CHKMISTRY

It is rounded and is also endowed with angles and faces. gj

It is killed by being roasted ten times with sul- phur, bitumen, artocarpus lakoocha and the acids.

100

Vimala, rubbed with borax, the juice of arto- carpns lakoocha and the ash of schrebera swict., and roasted in a covered crucible, yields an essence of the appearance of gold. * 101

Vimala digested with alum, green vitriol, borax and the watery liquid expressed from moringa pter., musd s. and finally roasted in a covered cru- cible in combination with the ashes of schrebera swiet., yields an essence in the shape of chandrarka (lit. copper of gold-like lustre). 103-104

^ILAJATU

•Silajatu (bitumen) is of two kinds, one having the smell of cow's urine, the other resembling camphor. It oozes out in the heat of the sun at the foot of the Himalayas from the bowels of gold, silver and copper respectively. 2 (cf. ante p. 46) 106

(1) The text reads : : ^f^^r^w ; —lead-like, which however conveys no adequate meaning. A variant is ^cf^f^W ;=gold-like.

(2) The resins of the styrax benzoicum and also a variety of bitumen, especially the latter are referred to. The description is evidently borrowed from the Charaka and the Susruta.

86 HINDU CHEMISTRY

SASYAKA

Sasyaka (blue vitriol) . . . has the play of colour in the throat of the peacock (i.e. has blue tint). Mayuratuttham is an emetic, an antidote to poisons and a destroyer of the whiteness of the skin. 127-129

It is killed by being roasted in a covered cruci- ble with the juice of artocarpus lakoocha, sulphur, bitumen and borax, 132

EXTRACTION OF COPPER

y Take blue vitriol and one-fourth its weight of

j borax and soak the mixture in the oil expressed

( from the seeds of pongamia glabra for one day only

, and then place it in a covered crucible and heat in

the charcoal fire — by this process an essence is

obtained from it of the beautiful appearance of

coccinella insect.1 133-134

Or, enclosed in a crucible with borax and the

juice of lemons and strongly heated, it yields an

essence in the shape of copper. 135

, , Pure blue vitriol, of the colour of peacock, in

(i) i. e. red ; in the Charka, blood is described as having the •colour of the coccinella insect. Couplets 133 and 134 have been borrowed almost verbatim from Rasamava.

HINDI; CHKMISTRY B7

combination with the aforesaid drugs and by the application of various processes, gives up its essence. 136

CHAPALA

There are four varieties of Chapala — yellow, white, red and black. That which has the lustre of .gold or silver is most appropriate for the fixation of mercury. The last two are indifferent and readily melt like lac and are useless. Chapala melts like tin when heated over fire — hence the name.

i 43- i 44

Chapala has six faces and the lustre of a <-rvstal. l 146

RASAKA

Rasaka(calamine) is of two kinds : the one of laminated structure is known as dardura ; the other, non-laminated, is called karavellaka. 149

Calamine is to be heated and plunged seven

times into the juice expressed from the seeds of

lemon or immersed in the urine of man or of horse

or in sour gruel or sour milk and thus purified.

__ 154-155

(i) It is not clear what substance is really meant by the term Chapala / its radical meaning is mobile or fickle, hence it is a name often given to quicksilver.

88 HINDU CHEMISTRY

EXTRACTION OF ZINC

Rub calamine with turmeric, the chebulic my- robalans, resin, the salts, soot, borax and one fourth its weight of semicarpus anacardium, and the acid juices. Smear the inside of a tubulated crucible with the above mixture and dry it in the sun and close its mouth with another inverted over it, and apply heat. When the flame issuing from the molten calamine changes from blue to white, the crucible is caught hold of by means of a pair of tongs and its mouth held downwards and it is thrown on the ground, care being taken not to- break its tubulure. * The essence possessing the lustre of tin which is dropped is collected for use.

157-161

Calamine is be powdered with lac, treacle, white mustard, the myrobalans, natron and borax and the mixture boiled with milk and clarified butter and made into balls. These are to be enclosed in a crucible and strongly heated. The contents are then poured on a slab of stone — the essence of calamine of the beautiful appearance of tin (thus- obtained) is to be used. 163-164

(i) The Benares Ms. reads "'JJBJJ sfj^j w^yjVand drops ^ which would mean so "as to break its tubulure."

HINDU CHEMISTRY 89

Or a vessel filled with water is to be placed inside a kosh^hi apparatus and a perforated cup or saucer placed over it ; a crucible charged as above is to be fixed in an inverted position over the saucer and strongly heated b) means of the fire of jujube (zizyphus iujuba) charcoal : the essence which drops into the water should be applied (in medicine), [vide illustrations] 165-166

This essence is to be mixed with orpiment and thrown over an earthen dish and rubbed with an iron rod till it is reduced to ashes. [From the context it is evident that the operation is to be per- formed over fire.] 167-168-

BOOK III.

THE UFARASAS OR INFERIOR RASAS

Sulphur, red ochre, vitriol, alum, orpiment, realgar, anjana and karakushMa — these are the eight uparasas, useful in operations of mercury. i

[Here follows the mythical origin of sulphur.]

9<) HINDU CHEMISTRY

SULPHUR

Sulphur is of three kinds : that of the first quality resembles the beak of a parrot ; that of the .second quality is yellow ; whereas the white variety is the worst. Another authority says : there are four kinds of sulphur according as it is of white, yellow,

red and black colour respectively the black

variety is rare.1 12-15

Melted sulphur is poured into the juice of ver- •besina calendulacea and thus purified.

A vessel which contains milk has its mouth tied •down with a piece of cloth, over which is deposited finely powdered sulphur ; the latter again covered with an earthen bowl. Heat is applied from above by burning cow-dung cakes. The melted sulphur drops into the milk and is thus purified. 24-25

GAIRIKA

Gairika . (red ochre) is of two kinds : the one, pashfu/a gairika, is hard and copper-coloured ; the other is svanza gairika /. e. of the colour of gold (yellow). 46

(i) Cf..."il y a des soufres des diverses couleurs ; l'un rouge, T autre javme un autre blanc pariel a 1'ivoire ;...un autre, noir, qui ne vaut rien.'' "La Chimie au moyen age," i, 307.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 91

KASISA

Kasisa (sulphate of iron) is of two kinds : valuka-kfrnsa and pushpa-karisa. [The former termed in other works dhatukasisa is the green variety and the latter, the basic or yellowish variety.] 51

Its essence is to be extracted like that of alum.

54

TUVARI

Tuvar! (alum) : the fragrant earth produced in the mountains of Surat is known as tuvari, which dyes cloth and fixes the colour of madder. * 59

A second variety of it called phataki or phullika is slightly yellow . . . Another variety known as phulla tuvari is white and acid in taste ; iron changes to copper by the process of lepa [cf. Bk. VIII, 80, where the term "«,q." is used in the sense of transmutation of the baser metals. The author seems to convey the idea that alum plays an important part in this process.] 60-62

Alum is astringent, acid, beneficial to the eye... and killer of mercury.2

(1) i.e. forms lakes.

(2) qiT^H^ft ; Cf. the various formulae for the preparation <>f calomel in which alum yields sulphuric acid and plays an impor- tant part.

92 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Alum is to be macerated in the bile of the ox one-hundred times and then its essence is to be extracted by distillation1 — a very secret process, not to be divulged. 65

TALAKA

Talaka (orpiment) is of two kinds : the one is of a leafy structure, the other is found in balls or cakes and is of golden colour . . . and bright. 66

It is purified by being digested in the juice of cucumber and the alkaline water of the ashes of sesamum or in lime water. 69

Talaka is to be rubbed with buffalo's urine and thrice macerated in the decoction of butea frondosa of the consistency of honey, and then to be roasted in a covered crucible and powdered. This opera- tion is to be repeated twelve times. It is then fit to be used in medicines.1' 74-75

Take one pala of talaka and rub it for one day with the milky juice of calopropis gigantea and mix

(1) qirlffrf <Rc3*T j here distillation is expressly mentioned. Couplet 65 is borrowed from Rasar«ava.

(2) Most likely a sulpharsenite of potash is formed. The process in Rasendrasarasaragraha is more scientific. " Talaka is to be cut into small pieces and rubbed with lime water and the alkaline water derived from the ash of achyranthes aspcra and is then to be enclosed in carbonate of potash and roasted."

HINDU CHEMISTRY 93

it with the same weight of oil and heat it in an open place for 7 days and nights together. Collect the white essence when it has cooled down. * 80-8 1

MANASSILA

Man as.nl a (realgar) is mixed with one-eighth part of its weight of iron-rust, molasses, bdellium and clarified butter and enclosed in the kosh/T appa- ratus [see p. 69] and strongly heated, when it yields its essence. 95

THE ANJANAS

The Anjanas (collyriums) : of these there are Sauviranjana, Rasanjana, Srotonjana, Pushpanjana, and Nilanjana ; their properties are described below.

97-98

Nilanjana is a killer of gold [cf. the killing of gold, silver, iron and copper in Vagbha/a, p. 55] and induces softness in iron, i.e. readers it easily pulverizable [as the iron becomes impregnated with the brittle sulphide of iron ; cf also Bk. viii, 38.]

104

The essence of the anjanas is to be extracted like that of realgar.

(i) It is evident that the operation is to be performed in a glass retort or in the koshzfi "apparatus described below under realgar.

94 HINDU CHEMISTRY

[We quote below the account given in Dutt's "Materia Medicaofthe Hindus" as our author gives rather scanty information on this point :

" Galena or sulphide of lead is called anjana or sauviranjana in Sanskrit, and krishna surma in vernacular. It is called anjana which literally means collyrium or medicine for the eyes, from the circumstance of its being considered the best appli- cation or cosmetic for them. The other varieties of anjana mentioned are Srotonjana, Pushpanjana and Rasanjana.

" Sauviranjana ( stSfaiOTT > is said to be obtained from the mountains of Sauvira, a country along the Indus, whence it derives its name. The article supplied under its vernacular name surma is the sulphide of lead ore. Sauvira is usually translated as sulphide of antimony, but I have not been able to obtain a single specimen of the antimonial ore from the shops of Calcutta and of some other towns. The sulphide of antimony occurs in fine, streaky, fibrous, crystalline, masses of a radiated texture: The lead ore on the contrary occurs in cubic masses destitute of rays and is tabular in its crystalline arrangement.

" Srotonjana ( ^rtal^l ) is described as of white colour, and is said to be produced in the bed

HINDU CHEMISTRY 95

of the Yamuna and other rivers. It is called Saffed Surma in the vernacular, and the article supplied under this name by Hindustani medicine-vendors is. calcareous Iceland spar. J It is used as a collyrium for the eyes, but is considered inferier to the black surma or galena.

"Pushpanjana (tj*n^r is described as an alka- line substance. I have not met with any vernacu- lar translation of this word nor with any person who could identify or supply the drug. Wilson, in his Sanskrit-English Dictionary, translates the term as calx of brass, but I know not on what authority.

"Rasanjana T^I^VJ is the extract of the wood of berberis Asiatic a called rasot in the verna- cular."]

Ka*»kushMa0i is produced at the foot of the Himalayas . . . Some are of opinion that it is the excrement of a new-born elephant ... it is of white and yellow colour and is a strong purgative.2 109-112

(1) See, however, ante p. 55.

(2) Not we'll made out. According to Wilson, it is a medici- nal earth, described as of two colours, one of a silvery and the other of a gold colour.

•96 HINDU CHEMISTRY

THE COMMON RASAS

Kampilla, Chapala J Gauripashawa, Navasara - ka, Kaparda, Agnijara, Hingula, Girisindura, Mr/d- •darasringakam : these are the eight common Rasas regarded as useful adjuncts to chemical operations by Nagarjuna and other experts. 120-121

Kampilla2 is like brick-dust ... a purga- tive . . . natural product of Surat . . . -and a vermifuge.

Gauripashana3 is of the lustre of rock-crystal, conch and turmeric respectively ... its white •essence is to be extracted like that of orpiment.

124-125

NAVASARA AND OTHER RASAS

Navasara (sal ammoniac) is begot of the decom- position of the shoots of bamboos and of the wood of careya arborea ; navasara is an alkali, its an- other name is chulikalava;/a (lit. salt deposited in

(1) Including Chapala there are nine common Rasas ; but Chapala has already been considered £s a maharasa. (see p. 87)

(2) The red mealy powder covering the capsules of mallotus Phillippensis, also known as kamala. It is not clear why this substance should have found a place among the products of the mineral kingdom.

(3) Not easy to identify ; lit., it means white stone or marble.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 97

the hearth), it is produced during the burning of the brick ... it kills mercury, liquefies iron, is a stomachic, an absorbent of the spleen, and aids digestion after much eating.1 127-129

Varataka (cowrie or. marine shell): alchemists prefer shells which are of yellow colour, knotty and possessed of circular lines on the dorsal side

macerated for three hours in sour gruel, it under- goes purifications.2 130-134

Agnijara is a substance discharged from the

(1) It is of interest to note that Royle, who wrote in 1837, •/ regrets that "no Hindu work on this subject (chemistry) has yet been translated" and is bold enough to predict that "Sal ammoniac must have been familiar to the Hindus, ever since they have burnt bricks, as they now do, with the manure of animals as some may usually be found crystallized at the unburnt extremity of the kiln." — "Antiquity of Hindu Medicine." Royle's surmises have proved to be literally correct. The word "Navasara" is apparently

of Persian origin being corrupted from "Nausadar."

(2) The text is almost exactly the same as in "Rasendrasara- .sawgraha," which gives an additional method of purifying the cowrie, namely : — "Dig a hole in the ground and fill it partly with the husk of paddy, now place on it a crucible containing cowries ; cover it with cow-dung cakes and set fire to the mass. By this' process the cowries are reduced to ashes." It is the lime thus obtained,, which is often used in medicine.

98 HINDU CHEMISTRY

womb of a kind of sea-crocodile and dried in the .sun.1 135

Girisindura (lit. vermilion derived from the rocks) occurs among the big mountains (inside the rocks). 137

Hingula (cinnabar : Syn. darada, see p. 78 ) ; quicksilver extracted from it is as efficacious as killed sulphur. When darada is placed in a retort and its essence collected in water, it yields the same substance as quicksilver — of this there is no doubt. (The apparatus referred to is shown in the illustrations). 141-144.

Mr/ddarasringakaw [various readings of the text are given ; it is not easy to make out what subs- tance is meant]. It is yellow and of leafy structure and occurs in Gujarat and round about mount Abu. 145

Rajavarta (Lapis lazuli) has a bluish tint but

with slight admixture of red it is killed by

being powdered in combination with lemon juice and sulphur and roasted 7 times in a covered crucible. 149-153

(i) Not identified. Perhaps the origin is mythical. «T3i is a crocodile, but as is well-known this Saurian never flourishes in the ;sea. According to *I5T ft^g agnijara is a marine medicinal plant.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 99

BOOK IV THE GEMS

The gems also are regarded as the agencies, which help the fixation or coagulation of mercury. These are the gems : Vaikranta, Suryakanta (sun- stone), Hirakaw (diamond), Mauktikaw (pearls), Chandrakanta (moon-stone), Rajavarta (lapis lazuli) and Garutffodgara, the emerald (lit. derived from the vomit of Garu</a) ; the topaz, the sapphire, the coral, the cat's eye are also reckoned among the gems. These are to be carefully collected for the fixation of mercury.1

(i) The ruby and the zircon are also mentioned. The Vaikranta "is a kind of gem said to resemble a diamond, and to be of similar properties." Wilson. Suryakanta and Chandrakanta are gems of fabulous existence, supposed to be formed by the congelation of the rays of the sun and moon respectively. They may also refer to some sort of crystals. The description of the gems, other than diamond, is meagre and vague. The following extracts from Manimala or "A Treatise on Gems" by Sir Raja Saurindra Mohan Tagore, Mus. Doc., will, to a certain extent, make up for the deficiencies.

"Mention is made of gems and jewels in the earliest writings of the Hindus. The Vedas speak of a place illuminated by rubies and diamonds, which gave out a light as refulgent as that of the planets. Precious stones play a prominent part in the mythologies

ioo HINDU CHEMISTRY

Vajraw (diamond) is of three kinds : male, female and hermaphrodite, and its medicinal pro- perties vary in excellence in the order in which they have been spoken. 26

The one with 8 angles and 8 faces and 6 cor- ners, very brilliant, with the play of rainbow- colours1 is known as the male diamond, whereas the female diamond is flattened and rounded whilst the neuter is rounded, obtuse-angled and slightly heavy.

27-28

Each of these again is divided into 4 classes according to its colour namely: Brahmawa, Kshatriya, VaLsya and .Sudra.2 30

of the Hindus, in their traditions, poems and legends. In the two great epics of Hindustan, the Ramayawa and the Mahabharata, frequent mention is made of stones and pearls with which the kings and the people of the period used to decorate their person."

(i) The high refractive and dispersive power of diamond is evidently referred to.

(2) " Diamonds white like the conch, waterlily, or crystal are

Brahmawas ; those which are red like the eyes of the hare are

Kshatriyas ; those which are verdant like the cool plantain-leaf

are Vaisyas ; those which resemble in colour the clean sword, are

nown as Sudras." Manimala, i.ioo.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 101

Diamond is abestower of long life, a tonic, an allayer of the three derangements [namely, of air phlegn and bile], a killer of all the ailments, a fixer of mercury, a subduer of death — in short it is like nectar.

Diamond is digested in the decoction of kulattha (dolichos uniflorus) or of kodrava (paspulum scrobiculatum] for three hours and thus purified. Diamond is to be macerated four times in the blood of the bug and enclosed in a ball made of the flesh of the musk-rat and then to be roasted in a covered crucible 30 times or to be heated 100 times and plunged in the decoction of kulattha. 34~37

Diamond is to be placed in a covered crucible, the inside of which has been coated with realgar, rubbed with the decoction of kulattha and the juice of artocarpus lakoocha and roasted 8 times in succession in the fire of dry cow-dung cakes. It is then heated 100 times and thrown into pure mer- cury— the diamond is thus killed and reduced to fine ashes. 38-39

The veracious alchemist Somasenanl,after having convinced himself of the success of this process by his own experiments, has given it to the world.

40

Diamond is to be 7 times smeared in the blood

102 HINDU CHEMISTRY

of the bug and dried in the sun and then to be placed in an iron pot and filled with the juice of cassia sophora and heated 7 times. The diamond is sure to be reduced to ashes. This process has been described by the sage Brahmajyoti. 41-42

Diamond smeared with the powder of lead, levigated in the juice of the fruit of madana (randia dumetorum), and roasted 20 times in a covered crucible, is reduced to fine powder, which is to be used in medicines.1

GENERAL PROCESS OF REDUCING GEMS TO ASHES

All the gems with the exception of diamond are killed when roasted eight times with a mixture of realgar, sulphur and orpiment, rubbed in the juice of artocarpus lakoocha. 63

Take asafcetida, the five salts, the three alkalies, rumex vesicarius, sal ammoniac, the ripe fruit of the croton plant, jalamukhi (anthericum tuber- osum) , rudanti (asclepias rosea) , the root of plumbago zeylanica, and the milky juice of euphor- bia antiquorum and calotropis gigantea — rub all

(i) One or two processes not mentioned by our author may be quoted from "Rasendrachintamawis" : —

HINDU CHEMISTRY 103

these together and make them into a ball. Place inside it the noble and luck-yielding gems. Wrap the ball with the leaves of betula bhojpattra and tie them with thread and enclose the ball again in a piece of cloth and suspend it in a dolayantra (see Bk. IX) filled with the acids and sour gruel and apply strong heat for three days and nights — the liquid principle of the gems is thus collected.

64-69

Powdered pearl is to be rubbed with the juice of rumex vesicarius and then transferred inside a lemon and stowed in a mass of paddy. At the end of a week it is heated in a crucible and liquefied.1

70-71

"Take the root of piper betle or of the cotton plant (Gossypium herbaceum) three years old, and rub it into a paste and enclose the diamond in it and roast it in a covered crucible seven times, when the diamond will be killed."

"An intelligent person should place in a brass vessel a frog which out of fright will pass water. A diamond is to be heated and plunged into this urine. This process being repeated several times, the diamond is killed." This last recipe is also to be found in Sarngadhara. Couplets (44-45) do not occur in the Benares Ms.

(i) Couplets 70, 71 and 72 do not occur in the Benaares Ms

104 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Diamond, placed inside the stem of vitis quad- r angular i$ * and heated four weeks in acids, is liquefied. 72

Vaikranta, which is of white colour, liquefies when macerated in the juice of rumex vesicarius and exposed to the sun for a week. 73

Take the juice of pandanus odoratissimus rock-salt, svarna pushpika together with coccinella insect. Vaikranta melts on being digested in this concoction for a week. 4

BOOK V

ON METALS2

The pure metals are : gold, silver, and iron. The putilohas (lit. metals emitting a foetid odour) are two : lead and tin. Dhatulohaw is iron proper and often conveys different meanings. The alloys are three in number : brass, bell-metal and vartaloha. i

(0 35T3^fr according to "Vaidyakasabdasindhu" is the same as ^f^grcre H^IcTT i-e- vitis quadrangularis.

(2) Loha (lit. iron) is often used in the wider sense of a metaL

HINDU CHEMISTRY 10=

GOLD

Gold is known to be of five kinds : — of which 3 are attributed to mythical and celestial origin ; the fourth is called kshawija (lit. begot of mines) : the 5th is obtained by the transmutation of the baser metals. (See Bk. VIII, 80-83.) ^

Gold is to be purified and killed, as otherwise [if taken internally] it robs one of strength, virility and happiness and brings a series of maladies. 1 1

Gold-leaf of the weight of one karsha is to be smeared with salt and placed between two earthen saucers and heated on a charcoal fire for an hour and a half when its true colours will come out. 12

The best method of killing all the metals is with the aid of the ashes of mercury.1 The next best is through the agency of the roots, whereas killing with sulphur is least to be recommended. 13

When a metal is killed with ariloha (meaning : not clear), it is injurious. Gold-leaves, pierced with holes and coated with a paste of lemon juice and the ashes of mercury and roasted ten times are thereby killed. 14.

Project into melted gold its own weight of the ash of marcury ; [when cooled] powder it and rub

(i) Generally sulphide of mercury (see p. 65).

io6 HINDU CHEMISTRY

it with lemon-juice and cinnabar and roast it in a covered crucible twelve times. The gold thus -acquires the colour of saffron.1 (cf. Rasamava XVI. 81, p. 74). i5-J6

Gold-leaf is killed by being rubbed with one- fourth of its own weight of killed mercury and acid of any kind and roasted eight times.2 17

SILVER

Silver is of 3 kinds : namely sahajaw (of mythical •origin), begotten of mines and artificial. 22

Silver melted with lead and borax undergoes

purification Arrange on an earthen dish a

mixture of lime and ashes in a circular row and place in it silver with its equal weight of lead. Now roast it over fire until the lead is consumed. Silver thus purified is to be used for medicinal purposes.) 3 (Cf. p. 68) 32-34

(1) This refers to the mistaken notion that the sublimate of factitious cinnabar (vermilion) contains gold.

(2) It will be seen that although killing with sulphur direct is not recommended, the gold is in reality converted into the sulphide and afterwards into metallic gold in a fine state of powder. See under "Killing of Metals."

(3) Cf. Rasarnava ^jffr ^K^ifT Stfaci^fW^fal "Silver is purified by being melted with lead and the ashes." The process is practically that of cupellation.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 107

Silver-leaf is to be rubbed with mercury and the juice of artocapus lakoocha and is to be em- bedded in sulphur and heated in a covered crucible over a sand-bath ; when cold, the mass is once more rubbed with orpiment and acids and roasted 12 times. By this process, the silver is reduced to ashes 35-37

Silver is reduced to ashes by being 3 times rubbed with powdered iron pyrites and lemon juice and roasted in a covered crucible. 38

Take 4 parts of silver-leaf and one of orpiment and rub them with the juice of lemon and roast the mixture and repeat the operation 14 times and thus silver is completely incinerated.1 40-41

COPPER

There are two varieties of copper : the one brought from Nepal is of superior quality ; that dug out of the mines of other countries is desig- nated Mlechchha. i 44

(1) We shall complete the account with an extract from Ra- sendrasarasawgraha : "Siver-feaf is pierced with holes and smeared with twice its weight of cinnabar and subjected to distillation in the Patana Yantra (see Bk. ix on apparatus). The mercury comes off and killed silver remains behind."

(2) The generic term for a barbarian or a foreigner.

io8 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Copper-leaf is killed by being rubbed with lemon-juice, sulphur and mercury and roasted thrice

55 IRON

There are three kinds of iron : namely, mundara (wrought iron), tiksh?zaw and kantaw ; mundaw again is of 3 varieties : viz., mridu, kuntk&m and ka^/araw.

That which easily melts, does not break and is glossy is mridu ; that which expands with difficulty when struck with a hammer is known as kuntha.m ; that which breaks when struck with a hammer and has a black fracture is kadaram. 71-?2

Tlkshnam (properly cast-iron, steel) : there are 6 varieties of it. One variety is rough and free from hair-like lines and has a quicksilver-like fracture and breaks when bent. Another variety breaks with difficulty and presents a sharp edge.

7S-7& Kantaw : there are 5 kinds of it, namely,

bhramaka, chumbaka, karshaka, dravaka and roma- kanta. It possesses one, two, three, four and five faces and often many faces [with which to attract iron] and is of yellow, black and red colour respec- tively. The variety which makes all kinds of iron move about is called bhramaka, that which kisses

HINDU CHEMISTRY 109

iron is called chumbaka, that which attracts iron is called karshaka, that which at once melts the iron is called dravaka (lit. a solvent) and the fifth kind is that wrhich, wrhen broken, shoots forth hair-like filaments. 84-89

Mercury is like an intoxicated elephant and kanta/ra is like the bent hook wherewith to restrain it. The wise man digs it out of the mines. That which has remained exposed to the sun and the atmosphere is to be avoided.1 92-93

If water is kept in a vessel and oil poured over it and the oil does not spread about ; if asafcetida gives up its odour and decoction of neem (Melia azadirachta) its bitterness and milk, being boiled in it, does not overflow but rises high like a peak — if such be the characteristics of the vessel, know that it is made of kanta iron. 94

Powdered iron is to be macerated awhile in the •decoction of the three myrobalans, in cow's urine and then to be mixed up with clarified butter and fried in an earthen vessel and stirred with an iron rod until a blade of straw thrown over it catches fire. The iron powder is to be pounded and the above process repeated five times.

(i) Couplets 84-93 are taken bodily from Rasarcava.

no HINDU CHEMISTRY

Or iron is roasted four times in a covered crucible with the decoction of the myrobalans and is reduced to fine powder.1 104-105

Leaves of tikshna. iron are repeatedly to be heated and plunged into water and then to be powdered in a stone mortar with an iron pestle * # # The powder of iron thus obtained is to- be roasted twenty times in a covered crucible in combination with mercury and sulphur, and after each roasting the powder of iron is to be pounded as directed above — iron thus reduced to ashes is to be used in medicine. 107-110

Take one part of iron and twentieth part of its weight of cinnabar and rub them with lemon juice and sour gruel and roast the mixture in a covered crucible. The operation being repeated 40 times,, kantara, tlkshnam and mundaw are killed — of this there is no doubt. 113-114.

Take of mercury one part, sulphur two parts and iron powder three parts and rub them with the juice of the Indian aloe and after 6 hours transfer the mass to a brass-vessel and cover it with the leaves of the castor-oil plant. At the end of an hour and a half the mass will become heated. It is

(i) The process is practically the same as that of Chakrapam, who ascribes it to Nagarjuna. (See p. 62.)

HINDU CHEMISTRY iir

then buried under a heap of paddy grains and taken out after three days and then powdered very fine and the contents passed through linen.1 All the three varieties of iron are thus completely killed. Gold and other metals can be killed by this process, after being reduced to fine powder like iron.

134-137 Rust of iron is to be heated and powdered till

it is reduced to fine powder — this is called ma^diira.2 147

The qualities which reside in killed iron are also to be found in the rust of iron, hence the latter may be substituted for the treatment of diseases. 3

148

TIN

Vangaw (tin) is of two kinds — kshurakara and misrskam ; the former is endowed with superior qualities ; the latter cannot be recommended for medicinal uses. 153

(1) "Rasendrasarasamgraha" has the same recipe with slight variations. According to it the powder is so fine that it "floats orr water like a duck." Cf. below p. 119,

(2) Analysis of " Mandura " ; see Appendix I.

(3) This couplet also occurs in Rasendrasarasawgraha.

ii2 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Kshurakara is white, soft, cool (to the touch), readily fusible and bright and does not clink (when struck). 154

Misr3.k3.rn is dirty white * * - * This is an anthelmintic and a destroyer of the urinary dis- orders. 155

Molten tin is dropped into the juice of Negurido -vitex mixed with turmeric ; the process being repeated 3 times, the metal undergoes purification.

154-156

Tinfoil is to be smeared with a paste of orpi- ment and the milky juice of Calotropis gigantea and then to be covered with the ashes of the bark of Ficus religiosus and Tamar Indus Indicus and roasted and then reduced to ashes.1

LEAD Sisakaw (lead) is readily fusible, very heavy,

(i) A few more recipes are given, in all of which orpiment plays an important part ; the one quoted below from Rasendra- sarasawgraha will yield the '* ash " of tin in the shape of an oxide : " Melt tin in an earthen pot and to the molten metal add an equal weight of powdered turmeric and Ajowan (Ptychotis ajoisaan] and cumin seeds, and afterwords the ashes of the bark of Tamarindus Indicus and Ficus religiosus and continue stirring over fire. The tin will be reduced to ashes."

HINDU CHEMISTRY 113

presents a black and bright appearance on fracture, is of foetid odour1 and black exterior. 171

Take of lead 20 palas and apply strong heat to it and drop into the molten metal one karsa of mercury and throw into it one after another the ashes of Terminalia arjuna, T. bellerica, pome- granate and Achyranthes aspera, weighing one pala each. The mass being vigorously stirred with an iron spoon for 20 nights in succession, the metal is calcined yielding a bright red ash.2 176-179

(1) Lead and brass (see below) are said to emit an offensive odour. In connection with this it is interesting to read Professor W. E. Ayrton's address " On the Smell of Metals " — Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1898, p. 772. Cf. also "Alch. Syr." Trad., 121, as well as the opening lines of the present Book describing tin and lead " as metals of foetid odour." In the Syrian Alchemy " Silver is .dis- tinguished from tin by its absence of fcetid odour " ; regarding this M, Berthelot very pointedly remarks : " on voit que 1'odeur propre que degagent les memaux frottes avec la main, ou bien au contact d'une matiere organique, jouait un role important dans leur etude chez les anciens auteurs ; importance que cette odeur a perdue aujourd'hui. — "La Chimie au moyen age" : T. ii. 121 (trad.)

(2) The following process is given both in the " Rasendra- chintamam " and " Rasendrasarsamgraha" : " Rub lead with the juice of Adhatoda vasica and melt it in an earthen pot add to it one fourth its weight of the ashes of Adhatoda and achyranthes aspera and stir the mass with a rod Adhatoda vasica and heat over a fire. Repeat the process seven times. The lead will be turned to vermilion-like powder."

ii4 HINDU CHEMISTRY

Leaves of lead are to be smeared with a paste

'of orpiment and the milky juice of Calotropis

gigantea and roasted in a covered crucible till the

metal is entirely killed. 184

BRASS, BELL-METAL, &c.

Pittala (brass) is of 2 kinds — ritika and kaka- tundi ; the former on being heated and plunged into sour gruel turns copper-coloured. 192-193

Brass, which is heavy, soft, of yellow colour, capable of resisting strokes, is to be recommended.

195

Brass, which is light and of effensive odour, is not good for medicinal purposes. 196

Brass, smeared with a paste of lemon juice, orpiment and sulphur and roasted 8 times, is re- duced to ashes. The process of killing brass is the same as that of copper. 201-202

Karasya (bell-metal) is made by melting together 8 parts of copper and 2 parts of tin. 205

It is completely killed by being roastad 5 times with sulphur and orpiment. 210

Vartalohaw is produced from Kawsya, copper, pittala, iron and lead ; hence it is regarded by

metallurgists as an alloy of 5 metals

It is killed with the aid of sulphur and orpiment.

212-216

HINDU CHEMISTRY 115

BOOK VI INITIATION INTO DISCIPLESHIP

[This chapter is full of directions for the mystic Tantric rites after the performance of which the pupil is to be initiated into the secrets of mercurial lore.]

The instructor must be wise, experienced, well- versed in chemical processes, devoted to Siva, and his consort Parvati sober and patient. The pupil should be full of reverence for his teacher, well- behaved, truthful, hard-working, obedient, free from pride and conceit and strong in faith. 3-7

Chemical operations are to be performed under the auspices of a ruler, who is God-fearing, who worships ^iva and Parvati and whose territory is free from anarchy ; and the Laboratory, to be •erected in the depth of a forest, should be spacious, furnished with 4 doors and adorned with the portraits of the Gods. I3-I5

Take of gold-leaf 3 niskas in weight and quick- silver '9 niskas and rub them with acids for 3 hours. Make the amalgam into a phallus (emblem of Siva.,

the creative principle) the phallus

to be worshipped in due form. By the mere sight

ii6 HINDU CHEMISTRY

of the phallus of mercury, the sins accumulated by the killing of 1,000 Brahmaws and 10,000 cows are redeemed. 19-22

The science of mercury was communicated by ^iva himself and is to be imparted by the instructor to the disciple according to the prescribed rules with closed eyes. 30

[Here follows an account of certain disgusting^ and obscene rites borrowed from Rasarwava and other Tantric works.]

The apparatus and implements as also the

ingredients required for chemical operations (see

next Book) are also to be addressed in prayer

„ . . . . and the names of the 27 alchemists.

to be invoked. [See opening lines : Bk. i, p. 77.]

53-6i

The science of mercury is to be strictly kept a secret . . . . if it is divulged, its efficacy is gone 70-

BOOK VII

ON THE LABORATORY

The Laboratory is to be erected in a region,, which abounds in medicinal herbs and wells ,. ,

HINDU CHEMISTRY n;

. . . it is to be furnished with the various apparatus. The phallus of mercury is to be placed in the east, furnaces to be arranged in the south- east, instruments in the south-west ; washing oper- ations in the west ; drying in the north-west.

The kosh^i apparatus for the ex- traction of essences, the water vessels, a pair of bellows and various other instruments are slso to t>e collected as also the threshing and pounding mortars, the pestles, sieves of various degrees of fineness, earth for the crucibles, charcoal, dried cow-dung cake, retorts made of glass, earth, iron and conch-shells, a iron-pans, &c. 1-18

Those who are truthful, free from temptations, given to the worship of Devas and Brahmawas, self- controlled and used to live upon proper diet and regimen — such are to be engaged in performing chemical operations. 30

Such herbalists as are not deceitful and are well- versed in the knowledge of the drugs and plants and in the language of many countries should be •employed. 32

Probably lime crucibles and retorts are meant.

n8 HINDU CHEMISTRY

BOOK VIII ON TECHNICAL TERMS

For the comprehension of ignorant physicians, Somadeva1 is now expounding the technicalities as made use of by experts. i

The physician is entitled to half the share of prepared mercury and eighth part of medicated oils and ghee and seventh part of prepared iron and other metals. 2-

Mercuary, on being finely rubbed with melted sulphur and other minerals, attains the tint of collyrium and is called kajjali (see p. 61 ), which again on being rubbed with a liquid substance is known as Rasapanka (lit. mud of mercury). 5-6

TESTS FOR KILLED IRON.

Killed iron is that which in the shape impalpable powder floats on water and when rubbed between the thumb and the fore-finger enters the lines ; wrhich, on being mixed with treacle, abrus p., honey

(i) The author evidently reproduces this chapter from a standard work on the subject by Somadeva. There is a work.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 119

and ghee and heated, does not revert to the natural state ; which floats on water like a duck and does not sink down even when heavy things like paddy grains are placed over it. (Cf. ante p. 1 1 1, foot-note).

25-28

Killed iron (or a general in killed metal) is that which on being heated with silver does not mix (or alloy) with it.1 29

ANTIMONY FROM STIBNITE

Nilafijana,2 mixed with tiksh^aw (cast iron) and strongly heated several times, yields a superior kind of lead which is readily fusible and is of mild black colour. 38

[Here follows a list of metaphorical expressions which are technically used.]

named RasendrachuWamam by Somadeva. We hope to notice it in the second volume.

(1) The Poona ed. has ^TJjm ^sfffrrf mixes with silver ; but the Benares and the Kasmir Mss. read ^Tfj «f ^^5t?T does not mix with silver. The latter is no doubt the correct reading.

(2) Stibnite. A synonym for it is souviranjana. The "superior kind of lead" is evidently antimony.

i2o HINDU CHEMISTRY

CERTAIN OTHER TECHNICAL TERMS

The resurrection of the dead is known as utthapana (lit. raising).1 39

The capacity of mercury to swallow food [i. e. to combine with certain substances or to take up the qualities inherent in them] is known as grasa- mana.m. 64

Mercury, alloyed with one-sixty-fourth part of its weight of gold or silver acquires a mouth where- with to swallow even hard metals. 68-69

Lepa, kshepa and kunta signify dhuma i. e. smoke. By the process of lepa is meant the conversion of iron into gold or silver. 80

The conversion of iron into gold or silver with the aid of mercury thrown into a smoky flame, emitting vapour, is known as dhumavedha (lit. pierced by smoke). 83

The conversion of a small quantity of a metal into gold through the agency of mercury. . . . . . . .which has acquired a mouth (see ^loka 68), is called ^abdavedha.2 84

(1) e.g., the conversion of killed iron into the metallic state.

(2) It is to be regretted that the details of the processes have been withheld. We have here sufficient indication of the belief in the transmutation of metals. The processes here mentioned are probably of the same nature as given in Rasarwava.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 121

Somadeva collected these brilliant gems of tech- nical terms with great care from the ocean of mercurial lore and strung them into a necklace which adorns the best of physicians in assemblies.

89

BOOK IX

ON APPARATUS THE (YANTRAS) '

Somadeva will now give a brief account of the apparatus after having consulted innumerable works •on chemistry.2 i

DOLA YANTRAS

Dola yantraw : a pot is half-filled with a liquid and a rod placed across its mouth from which is suspended the medicine tied in a piece of cloth. The liquid is allowed to boil and a second pot3 inverted over the first. 3-4

(1) Vide illustrations : Appendix II.

(2) This chapter also is evidently quoted from the work of •Somadeva.

(3) Unless otherwise stated earthen pots are meant.

122 HINDU CHEMISTRY

SVEDANI YANTRAM

Svedanl ya.ntra.rn :. a pot with boiling water has its mouth covered with a piece of cloth and the substance to be steamed is placed on it and a second pot arranged in an inverted position over the rim of the first. 5

PATANA YANTRAM

Patana ya.ntra.rn [lit. apparatus for sublimation and distillation] : two vessels are adjusted so that the neck of the one fits into that of the other. The junction of the necks is luted with a composition made of lime, raw sugar, rust of iron and buffalo's milk. [Tedious details are given as to the exact measurement of the vessels.] 6-&

ADHASPATANA YANTRAJ/

Adhaspatana ya.ntra.rn : a modification of the above apparatus in which the bottom of the upper vessel is smeared with the substance, the vapour or essence thereof condensing into the water of the lower one. Heat is applied on the top of the upper vessel by means of the fire of dried cow- dung cakes. 9

HINDU CHEMISTRY

DHEKI YANTRAJ/

Dheki yantraw : below the neck of the pot is a hole into which is introduced the upper end of a bamboo tube, the lower end of it fitting into a brass vessel filled with water and made of two- hemispherical halves. Mercury mixed with the proper ingredients is subjected to distillation till the receiver gets sufficiently heated. 11-14.

VALUKA YANTRA^/ (SAND-BATH)

Valuka yantraw (sand-bath : a glass flask with a long neck containing mercurials, is wrapped with several folds of cloth smeared with clay and then dried in the sun. The flask is buried up to three- fourths of its length in sand and placed in art earthen pot whilst another pot is inverted over itr the rims of both being luted with clay. Heat is- now applied till a straw placed on its top gets burnt. 34-36-

LAVAATA YANTRAJI/

If in the above apparatus salt is substituted for sand, it is called la.va.na yantraw (salt-bath). 38-

124 HINDU CHEMISTRY

NALIKA YANTRA^

If in the above an iron tube be substituted for the glass flask, it is called nalika yantraw. 41

Place the crucible containing chemicals inside .a mass of sand and apply heat by means of cow- <lung cakes. This is known as the Bhudhara yantraw.

TlRYAKPATANA

Tiryakpatana yantrara (lit. distillation per des- censum) : place the chemicals in a vessel provided with a long tube, inserted in an inclined position, which enters the interior of another vessel arranged -as receiver. The mouths of the vessels and the joints should be luted with clay. Now urge a strong fire at the bottom of the vessel containing the chemicals, whilst in the other vessel place cold water. This (process) is known as tiryakpatana^z.

' 48-50 VlDYADHARA YANTRAM

Vidyadhara yantram is for the extraction of mercury from cinnabar. [Two earthen pots are

HINDU CHEMISTRY 125

arranged as in the ilhstration. The upper one contains cold water and the mercury condenses at its bottom.] 57-5&

DHUPA YANTRA-W

Dhupa yantraw (lit. fumigating apparatus) : bars of iron are laid in a slanting position a little below the mouth of the lower vessel and gold-leaves- are placed over them and at the bottom of the vessel is deposited a mixture of sulphur, realgar,, orpiment, etc., A second vessel, with its convexity turned upwards, covers the mouth of the lower one and the rims are luted with clay. Heat is now applied from below. This is called fumigation of gold-leaves. Silver may also be similarly treated.

70-74

[This chapter concludes with a detailed descrip- tion of mortars and pestles — their sizes, measure- ments, &c.]

BOOK X

ON THE INGREDIENTS FOR CRUCIBLES, &c.

Earth which is heavy and of a pale colour, sugar or earth from an ant-hill or earth which has

126 HINDU CHEMISTRY

been mixed with the burnt husks of paddy, fibres of the hemp plant, charcoal and horse-dung pounded in an iron mortar and also rust of iron are to be recommended for crucible-making. 5-6

V^/NTAKA CRUCIBLE

A crucible of the shape of the fruit of br/njal ( Solannm melong) to which is attached a tubulure, .which is expanded towards its mouth like the flower of Datura s., . '. . and which is either 12 or •8 digits in length, is suitable for the extraction of the essence of calamine and other readily fusible minerals. 23~24

[The particular kind of crucible described here is the same as referred to in the extraction of zinc from calamine in the couplets 157-161, Bk. II.]

[Here follows a tedious account of the different kinds of crucibles to be used for different chemical operations.]

CALCINATION, ROASTING, &c.

When metals have undergone roasting they •cannot be roasted to their former condition (i.e. they lose their own properties) and they acquire

HINDU CHEMISTRY 127

superior qualities, fill up the lines in the fingers and do not sink in water.1 51

A quadrangular pit 2 cubits in length, breadth and depth respectively is filled with 1,000 cow-dung cakes. The drugs to be roasted are placed in one •crucible ; this is covered with a second, the rims being luted with clay. The crucibles are deposited over the cow-dung cakes and 500 more thrown over them : fire is now applied. 54~55

[The description given above is that of a typical roasting pit. The size of the pit, as also the number of cow-dung cakes often varies accor- ding to requirements. It is unnecssary to reproduce the minutiae J]

THE METALS

The six metals are : gold, silver, copper, tinr lead and iron. Kawsya and pittala (see p. 114) are artificially made [i.e. alloys]. 70-

THE SALTS

The six salts are : samudraw (lit. derived from the evaporation of sea-water) ; saindhava (or rock-

(i) Cf. VIII. 25-28 ; also ibid. 39, pp. 118-119.

128 HINDU CHEMISTRY

salt) ; viflfaw, sauvarchala, romaka and chulika lava/za.1

THE ALKALIES

The 3 alkalies are : carbonate of potash, carbo- nate of soda (trona or natron) and borax. 71

THE OILS

[A list of plants is given from the seeds of which oil is expressed.] 73-75

THE FATS

The fats of the jackal, the frog, the tortoise, the crab, the dolphin, the ox, the pig, man and also of the goat, the camel, the ass, the ship and the buf- falo are to be used. 76-77

THE URINES

The urines of the elephant, the she-buffalo, the ass and the horse are to be used. (Cf. ante p. 30).

78 THE ACIDS

The acids are : rumex vesicarius, the citrons

(i) A syn. for navasara (salammoniac), see p. 97.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 129

and lemons, oxalis corniculata, tamarind, the acid exudation of clcer arietinum, zizyphus jujuba, pomegranate, averrhoa carambola — these are the acids well suited for the purification, dissolution and killing of mercury and the minerals.1 80-84

THE EARTHS

Brick, red ochre, saline deposits, ashes, earth from ant-hills — these 5 kind of earth are recommend- ed by the experts. 85

THE POISONS

Kdlakuta, aconite ferox, sringika and the biles •of animals are the chief poisons. 86

The minor posions are : — gloriosa super ha, strychnos nux vomica, nerium odorum, anacardium semicarpus, datura stramonium, calotropis gigantea?

(1) See under Mineral Acids.

(2) The information on the poisons is most elaborate in Susruta from whom our author evidently borrows the classification as given later on in Bk. XV ; namely : ^1^;, ^T^:, gifieW or vegetable, animal and artificial poison. It is worthy of note that opium is not included among the minor poisons.

9

i3o HINDU CHEMISTRY

THE SOLVENTS

Treacle, bdellium, abrus precatorious, clarified butter, honey, borax — these are used for helping the fusion of the most infusible metals and hence they are classed among the solvents. 100

BOOK XI

ON THE PURIFICATION OF MERCURY

I am now going to describe briefly the various processes for the purification of mercury after having consulted Rasar^ava and other works. 10

There are 3 natural impurities in quciksilver, visha (poison), va^hi (fire) and mala (dirt, dregs) and two artificial, due to its being alloyed writh lead and tin.1 J4-i5

(i) Cf. Rasendrachintama?zi :

n

" Trades-people fraudulently adulterate quicksilver with lead and tin, hence it is to be freed from these artificial defects [impu- rities] by means of three distillations " as given above under Tiryakpatana (p. 124).

HINDU CHEMISTRY 131

Hence for the purification of mercury, the oper- ations (named below) are to be undertaken with the aid of appliances and skilled assistants. 20

In an auspicious day and under the influence of a benign star, a quantity of mercury weighing 2,000 or 1,000 or 100 or 18 or 10 pal as is to be taken and the operation begun. 21-22

[It is useless to enter into the details of the several processes described here ; they are more or less repetitions of what has already been given.]

Patanavidhi : [purification of mercury by distill- ation as described in the foot note p. 130.] 33

FIXATION OF MERCURY.

Rasavandha : processes for destroying the fluidity of mercury :

Take mercury and one-fourth its weight of killed gold and with the addition of sulphur make a ball. Now add an equal weight of sulphur and roast the mass in a covered crucible.1 72

The mercury thus treated is afterwards killed

(i) In other works a glass retort is recommended.

132 HINDU CHEMISTRY

with six times its weight of sulphur.1 73

INCINERATION OF MERCURY

[The chapter concludes with certain recipes for the killing of mercury, with the aid of purely vegetable products.]

Mercury, roasted in a covered crucible with asafcetida, which has been previously digested in the milky juice of ficus oppositifolia, is reduced to ashes. * 1 1 1

Andropogon serratus and clitorea ternatea are to be pounded in a mortar with sour gruel and with the paste thus formed, mercury is to be tri- turated and digested 7 times and finally roasted in

(1) The shining reddish brown crystalline sublimate of sulphide of mercury thus obtained is a favourite and frequently-used remedy with the Hindu physicians. It is reputed to be a panacea for a variety of ills that flesh is heir to. In the " Rasendrachintainam," " Rasendrasarasaragraha" and other treatises, this preparation is described as " Makaradhvaj" and " Rasasindura " (lit. minium-like mercury). From the supposed presence of gold it is often named *' Svarwasindura" (lit. gold and vermilion). .During sublimation, the gold of course is left behind. The general belief is that by associa- tion with gold the mercury acquires most potent efficacy. A later work, Rasapradipa, is sceptical about the part which gold plays and recommends its being left out.

(2) Sarngadhara also.gives a similar recipe.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 133

a covered crucible after addition of fresh quantities of the above paste. The mercury is reduced to ashes, resembling salt. 112-113

The seeds of achy r ant hes asp era and ricinus communis are to be pounded together. The mer- cury is to be placed inside the powder and the mass roasted as before. The mercury is reduced to ashes.1 i 14

Purified mercury is to be preserved in the hol- low of a horn or tooth or of bamboo. 1 19 *_#':#,#',-.*

Here ends chapter XI of " Rasaratnasamuch- chaya," which treats of the purification fixation and incineration of mercury.

Notes on the Minerals

Diamond : Belief in the combustibility, of diamond (vide pp. 101-2) was an accepted creed with

(i) Cf. Rasendrachintamawi, which evidiently quotes from a Tan- trie work : " O Goddess, I shall now enumerate the substances which kill mercury, without the use of sulphur." A list of 41 plants is given of which any ten may be employed at a time for the roasting operation. The names of the following among others occur in the list : vitis quadrangularis, andropogon serratus, plumbago seylanica, clitorea ternatea, milky juice of calatropis gigantea and of euphorbia neriifolia ; vitex negundo, datura stramonium, achyranthes asperatficus oppositifolia and tinospora cordifolia

134 HINDU CHEMISTRY

the Hindu latro-Chemists. The reader will find much useful information in the followng extract.

'This combustibility of the diamond appears to have been observed at an early period, although the fact does not seem to have attracted the general attention of the older chemists, as statements of a contrary character are recorded by them. Thus, for instance, Kunkel states that his father, at the command of Duke Frederick of Holstein, heated diamonds in his gold-melting furnace, for nearly thirty weeks, without their undergoing any change. It is to Newton, however, that we owe the first argument which went to prove that the diamond was capable of undergoing combustion on account of its high refractive power, a property characteris- tic of the class of oily bodies. In the second book of his Opticks, Newton says upon the subject, " Again the refraction of camphire, oyl-olive, lint- seed oyl, spirit of turpentine and amber, which are fat sulphureous unctuous bodies, and a diamond, which probably is an unctuous substance coagulated, have their refractive powers in proportion to one another as their densities without any considerable variation." The conclusion to which Newton was led by theoretical considerations was experimentally proved to be correct in the year 1694-5 by Averami

HINDU CHEMISTRY 135

and Targioni, members of the Academia del Cimento, who, at the request of the Grand Duke Cosmo III., of Tuscany, placed a diamond in the focus of a large burning-glass and observed that it entirely disap- peared. Francis I., who is said to have received from an alchemist an anonymous receipt for melting diamonds, exposed, in the year 1751, diamonds and rubies of the value of 6,000 gulden for twenty- four hours to the action of a powerful fire ; the rubies were found unaltered, but the diamonds had altogether disappeared. The volatilization of the diamond by means of heat was from this time forwad made the subject of numerous experiments. Thus, Darcet observed in 1766 that diamonds dis- appear when they are heated in a cupel-furnace, even in closed crucibles, but, continuing his experi- ments at the request of the Paris Academy, he, together with Rouelle, found that when heated in perfectly hermetically-sealed vessels, the diamond did not disappear. Macquer, in the year 1771, was the first to observe that when the diamond undergoes volatilization it appears to be surround- ed by a flame. In conjunction with Cadet and Lavoisier, he afterwards found that a true com- bustion takes place. In continuation of these ex- periments Lavoisier, together with Macquer, Cadet,

HINDU CHEMISTRY

Brisson, and Baume,1 placed a diamond in a glass vessel containing air collected over mercury, and on igniting the diamond by means of a burning- glass, they found that carbonic acid gas was pro- duced."— Roscoe and schor. Vol i. pp. 658-59.

Mr. T. H. Holland, F.G.S., A.R.S.M., of the Geo- logical Survey of India, to whom was submitted the translation of the descriptions of the minerals (vide pp. 79-100), has favoured me with his opinion, which is reproduced below in his own words. It will, to a certain extent, help in the identification of the minerals.

" I have appended notes giving suggestions which may help to explain some of the passages, but the majority of descriptions are altogether too vague to permit identification of the minerals. The names of minerals already given are pre- sumably recognised translations ; for the descrip- tions accompanying the names might just as well,, in many instances, apply to several minerals known in this country.

" Vaikranta has 8 faces and 6 angles " &c., (p. 83) possibly refers to a mineral crystallizing in the octahedral form, and of the many minerals crystallizing in this form the family of spinels is

(i) Lavoisier : (Euvres, tome ii. 38, 64.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 137

more likely to exhibit the great range of colours given.

" White"— Unknown.

"Red"— Ruby spinel.

" Yellow " — Rubicelle (orange to yellow) : dys- luite (yellowish brown).

" Blue"— Almandine (violet).

" Grass-green " — chlorospinel, hercynite (black when massive, green by transmitted light and in powder), pleonaste (dark-green) ;

"black" — magnetite, gahnite, franklinite &c. ;

" variegated " — some magnesia spinels ;

8 Faces and 6 angels " might possibly also refer to the hexagonal prism with basal planes, a com- mon form of corundum, which gives the variety of colours referred to even more perfectly than the spinels.

But the remarks on p. 104 as to the "lique- faction " of this mineral, cannot apply to either spinel or corundum. Unless there is some failure to appreciate the original meaning the statements are nonsensical.

Makshikara (pyrites) .... Pyrites is of two kinds — golden and silvery ; the former is a native of Kanauj, and is of golden yellow colour. The silvery pyritss is associated with stones and

138 HINDU CHEMISTRY

is of inferior quality."

Makshika repeatedly steeped in [organic sub- stances] and gently roasted in a crucible yields an essence of the appearance [in the shape] of copper"

(P. 84.)

Iron pyrites [Fe S2] is brass-yellow in colour, and its dimorphous form marcasite is pale bronze- yellow ; but there are other pyrite-like minerals which are silvery white ; for instance, cobaltite (Co Sa. Co. AsJ, smaltite (Co Asa), lollingite (Fe As2 with S) and leucopyrite (Fe, As4). Iron pyrites roasted in air would give a red residue of Fe2 Og. But it seems more likely that the " golden-yellow " variety is copper-pyrite, which has a deep yellow colour and besides which iron-pyrite when freshly fractured would appear almost silvery in colour. In that case the " essence of the appearance of copper" might be the metal itself.1

" Sasyaka (blue vitriol) has the play of colours in the throat of the peacock." (p. 86.)

The experiments referred to might apply to any copper compound. There is a copper ore, bornite or erubescite (Gug Fe S3), which, on account of its

(i) Vimala (pp. 84-85) would appear also to be a variety of pyrites.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

peculiar colour and iridescence, is known as " peacock" ore. It occurs in several parts of India.

Gairika : hematite, which is red and often hard, .and limonite which is yellow or brown, both occur in the form of ochres.

'iCamkushMaoz is produced at the foot of the Himalayas . . . it is of white and yellow7 colour and is a strong purgative."

Possibly an efflorescence of magnesium sulphate or sodium sulphate ; both are not uncommon. The yellow colour might be due to admixture with ferruginous dirt due to oxidation of the ferrous sulphate produced by similar causes with the other sulphates.

Vajrawz : the remarks " 8 faces and 6 corners " would be correct for an octahedral crystal of •diamond ; but I know of no crystal form. which has at the same time " 8 angles." The faces of the diamond are frequently rounded, which may account for the statements about the " female" and " neuter" diamonds. Many transparent minerals give a play of colours through either schillerization or refraction ; but the diamond is of course particularly noticeable on account of its high dispersive power."

The following extracts from Ball's " Economic •Geology of India" will also throw- considerable

140 HINDU CHEMISTRY

light on this subject. It will be seen how in India the traditions of the technical arts of which we get vivid glimpses in the Rasar^ava have been pre- served even to our own days from time immemorial-

" Rajputana — Copper ores are found in several of the independent States of Rajputana, and also in the British district of Ajmir. Mining has been practised on a large scale, but at present the trade of miner is becoming extinct and the operations,, which are only carried on in a few of the localities, are of a very petty nature.

" The names of the States in which there are mines are as follows : Alwar, Bhartpur, Jaipur,. Udepur, Bundi and Bikanir.

" Alwar State. — According to Mr. Racket there are ancient copper mines at the following localities in this state : Daribo, Indawas, Bhangarh, Kusal- garh, Beghani, Pratabgarh, Tassing, and Jasing- pura. The most important of this is the first.

" Deribo. — The mine is situated on a sharp anticlinal bend in a thin band of black slates inter- calated in the Alwar quartzites. There appears to- be no true lode ; the one, which is pyrites mixed with arsenical iron, occurs irregularly disseminated through the black slates, a few specks and stains only being seen in the quartzites ; occasionally rich

HINDU CHEMISTRY 141

nests of ore were met with ..... From an interesting account by Major Cadell, the following facts regarding the manufacture have been ex- tracted. The ore, as usual in the native process, is pounded, made up into balls with cow-dung, roasted, and then smelted in a closed furnace and refined in an open charcoal fire. Thirty pounds of ore require four times that quantity of charcoal and yield 5^ pounds of metal, or 16.6 per cent. During the last 12 years the average annual out- turn has been only 3 tons 8 cwts., and it is dimin- ishing owing to the influx of European copper.

" Singhana (Jaipore State). — The copper mines at Singhana are situated in rocks belonging to the Arvali series. The earliest account of these mines, Avhich is believed to have been by Captain Boilcan, was published in the year 1831. The principal productions were copper, blue vitriol or copper sulphate, alum, and an ore of cobalt called sehta or saita.

"The mines are described as being tortuous and of great extent; at the working . faces it was the custom to light fires which caused the rock to- split up. Lamps were used which the miners carried on their heads and with a gad and hammer -extracted the ore. The principal ore found appears-

i42 HINDU CHEMISTRY

to have been pyrites. It was sold retail by auction to the proprietors of different furnaces.

" The pounding or crushing was effected on a stone anvil with a hammer weighing eight or ten seers ; when completely reduced to powder the ore was made up into balls with cow-dung and roasted. The blast furnaces (vide illustrations) were prepared in the following manner. A quantity of common sand was spread on the door of a. circular hut, in the centre of which a depression, 12 to 15 inches in diameter and 2 or 3 inches deep, was made ; in this a layer of fine sand and another of ashes were laid to prevent the metal from adhering to the bottom of the receiver ; two clay nozzles or tuyers were then placed on opposite sides of this hollow and a third between them, leaving the fourth side vacant for the slag to escape. The nozzles were then connected by moist clay and a circular rim of mud, a few inches in height,, was raised, on which three annular vessels of fire- clay were placed to form the body of the furnace, each of these was 15 inches in external diameter,. 10 inches high, and 3 inches thick. They were used repeatedly, but the lower part of the furnace had to be reconstructed for every charge. The bellows were simply goat-skins connected with the nozzles.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 143

and were worked by the families of the smelters. After a preliminary tiring, to dry the mud, the furnace was charged with charcoal, roasted ore and iron slag, the latter being employed as a flux.

'•' In a day of nine or ten hours' duration, 3 maunds of charcoal, 2\ of the roasted ore, and 2 of the iron slag were consumed. The slag was drawn off and the smelted copper which had accumulated at the bottom of the furnace was removed on the following day. It was then re-melted and refined in an open furnace under a strong blast from bel- lows, and cast into small bars or ingots, which were subsequently removed to the Mint and cut up and fashioned into coins.

"The ore was said to yield only from to 2\ to yi per cent, of metal, but the profits must have been not inconsiderable as the Khetrl Raja is said to have claimed one-sixth of the value of the copper in addition to Rs. 14,000 received for the lease. The quality of the metal is said to have been inferior to that of Basawar, this being attributed to

the use of the iron slag as a flux

. . . Considerable quantities of blue vitriol (copper sulphate), alum, and copperas (iron sul- phate) are manufactured from the descomposed slate and refuse of the mines. The slates are

144 HINDU CHEMISTRY

steeped in water, which is afterwards evaporated- in large iron vessels, when the blue vitriol, is -crystallized out, afterwards the alum, and lastly the copperas. Mr. Mallet found traces of nickel and -cobalt in all three of these substances.

" Copper smelting in the Singhbhum District (Bengal).- — Indications exist of mining and smel- ting having been carried on in this region from a very early period, and the evidence available, points to the Seraks or lay Jains as being the persons who, perhaps 2,000 years ago, initiated the mining.1 The number and extent of the ancient workings testify to the assiduity with which every sign of the presence of ore was exploited by these early pioneers and those who follow them up to recent times."

The Treatise on Alchemy attributed to Bubacar (loth to iith century A. D.) also contains many similar descriptions of the gems and minerals ; specially noticeable is the classification according to sex — male andfema/e (cf. Bk. IV, 27-28, p. 100). We append below one or two short extracts.

"Viennent ensuite les treize genres de pierres, savoir : les marcassites, les magnesies, les tuties,

(i ) Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, June 1869, p. 170.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 145

1'azur (lapis lazuli ou cinabre?), 1'hematite, le gypse, etc., et toute une suite de mineraux designes sous des noms arabes. Parmi les marcassites (sulfures), on distingue la blanche, pareille a 1'argent ; la rouge ou cuivree ; la noire, couleur de fer ; la doree, etc.

" Les magnesies J sont aussi de differente couleur, Tune noire, dont la cassure est cristalline,2 une autre ferrugineuse, etc. Une variete est dite male ; une autre, avec des yeux brillants, est appelee iemelle ; c' est la meilleure de toutes.

" Les tuties 3 sont de differentes couleurs : verte, jaune, blanche, etc."

" La classe des -vitriols (atramenta) comprend six especes : celui qui sert a faire du noir, le blanc, le calcantum, le calcande, le calcathar, et le surianum. II y en a un jaune, employe par les orfevres ; un vert mele de terre, employe par les megissiers, etc.-' — " La Chimie au moyen age/' T. I.,

307-

(1) Ce mot designait certains sulfures et oxydes metalliques, tels que les oxydes de fer magnetique, le bioxyde de manganese, -etc.

(2) Offre des yeux brillants.

(3) Oxydes et minerais de zinc, renfermant du cuivre.

IO

146 HINDU CHEMISTRY

ALUM AND GREEN VITRIOL

Dutt speaking of alum states : " it is not men- tioned by Susruta, in his list of metallics, but later writers give its synonyms and uses." This is evidently incorrect. Alum, with green vitriol, is- distinctly referred to in the Susruta, e. g :

Sutra. xxxvi, 12.

In the above ^loka surdshtrajd, lit., begot of Surashtra (modern Surat), is used in the sense of alum. From the ancient times the " earth of Surat " has been known to yield this mineral. Amara Siwha in his Lexicon, written sometime between 400-600 A. D.,1 gives among others the following synonyms of alum : — karakshi, tuvari and surashtraja. " Rasaratnasamuchchya " also gives the same synonyms. (Bk. III., 59-62). The manu- facture of alum survives to our own days, as the following description will show :

" Alum shales, so called, are of rare occurrence in peninsular India, and, so far as it known, the

(i) The lowermost limit of his age may be taken about 948 A. D. as made out from an inscription in Budh Gaya.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 147

only considerable native manufacture is situated

in Rajputana ; but as will be gathered from what follows, the tertiary rocks of the extra-peninsular regions often contain such shales.

" In two localities lumps of alum... occur naturally in sufficient abundance to be a regular article of export.

" Alum is principally used as a mordant in dyeing, but as a drug its employment is extensive in India.

"BEHAR. — Captain Sherwill in 1846 * stated that a small quantity of alum was manufactured from slates obtained in the district of Shahabad ; these rocks, it is believed, belonged to the Bijigrah pyritous shales of the Kaimur group of the Vin- dhyan series.

" The alum was sold at the high price of one rupee per tola ; it was identical with the salajit of Nepal. Copperas or iron sulphate is obtained in the same region, which is situated to the north of Rotasgarh, and to the west of the Sone.

" Rajputana, Khetri, and Singhana. — In connec- tion with the copper mines at the above localities

Ci) Journ. As. Soc. XV., p. 58.

148 HINDU CHEMISTRY

there are manufactories which turn out consider- able quantities of blue vitriol (copper sulphate), copperas (iron sulphate), and alum. The process has been very fully described and illustrated by Colonel Brooke. In 1864 there were twenty of these factories at Khetri and about double the number at Singhana. The broken shale from the mine which contains the salts is placed in earthen gharas, together with the crusts from the refuse heaps of previous lixiviations and water is added. The gharas are arranged on ledges prepared for the purpose on the heaps of refuse, as will be seen by reference to the wood-cut (vide illustrations).

" Each charge of shale is exposed to three changes of water and the water itself is changed from one ghara to another till it has taken up the sulphates from seven different steepings. It is then of a thick dirty-bluish colour and is taken to the boiling house, where it is boiled in earthen gharas ; when sufficiently concentrated it is left to cool, and thin sticks being . introduced the blue vitriol crystallizes on them. The mother liquor is then poured off and again boiled, and on the addition of saltpetre, the alum crystallizes at the bottom of the vessel. The residual sulphates still in solution, are allowed to crystallize out by ex-

HINDU CHEMISTRY 149

posing the mixture to the sun.

**/*,**

" CUTCH. — There are numerous accounts of the manufacture of alum in Cutch. The earliest is by Captain Me Murdo, who states that before 1818 the exports of alum amounted in some years to several hundred thousand maunds, which chiefly went to Guzerat and Bombay to be employed in dyeing. The following account by Mr. Wynne is the most recent and complete. The site of the operations is at Mhurr or Madh.

"The rock containing the materials is a pyritous dark-gray or black shale, which is in close associa- tion with a soft aluminous pseudo-breccia of the sub-nummulitic group.

"This shale is excavated from pits and is expos- ed for four months, a slow combustion taking place owing to the decomposition of the pyrites.

" It is then spread in squares resembling salt pans and sprinkled with water. After about 12 days it consolidates into efflorescing mammillated crystalline plates or crusts called phitkari-ka-bij or seed of alum. These crusts are boiled in large iron vessels (luted inside with lime), together with saltpetre (or other potash salt), in the proportion of 15 of 'alum seed' to 6 of the latter ; when it has

150 HINDU CHEMISTRY

settled, the liquor is placed in small earthen vessels somewhat the shape of flower-pots, and crystalliza- tion takes place in three days. These crystals are again boiled one or more times to concentrate the solution, which is finally ladled into large thin bladder-shaped earthen mutkds or ghards with small mouth ; these are sunk into the ground to prevent their breaking, and in five days the alum is found crystallized in masses. The vessels are then broken and the alum is stored.

" Alum is also manufactured from the water of a hot spring north of Mhurr. The impure salt- petre, which is employed to supply the second base in the above-mentioned manner, is obtained by lixiviation of village refuse." (Ball's " Economic Geology", pp. 431-33).

" IRON SULPHATE. — The green vitriol or cop- peras of commerce which is known to the natives as kahi and hara kdsis, is produced principally from the so-called alum shales from which alum is pre- pared. As is the case also writh alum, copperas is found sometimes as a natural exudation upon alum shales and other rocks which include iron pyrites.

" This native copperas goes by several different names in India, according to the nature of the other substances with which it is combined.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 151

" BEHAR. — In the year 1833, Mr. J. Stevenson published an analysis of native sulphate of iron obtained from Behar, which was at that time used by the native dyers of Patna.

He found that it consisted of —

Iron sulphate . . . 39*0

„ peroxide .... 36*0

Magnesia ..... 23*0

Loss 2-0

ibid p. 419. loo'o

On fftetals and metallurgy

In the Vedic Period gold and silver were not only known but were worked into ornaments of various descriptions. Gold was often called by the name " yellow" and silver by the name "white." The warriors of old were protected with coats of mail and helmets of metal. ' Loha" wras a term ap- aplied to the metals in general though in later ages it came to stand for iron alone. In the Vedic literature iron proper seems to be designated by krishwayas or the black metal and copper by lohita- yas or the red metal. a

Besides gold and silver, several other metals,. e.g. iron, lead and tin, are mentioned in the White

(0 ^KH ^tf*BT5T^ sftTOgfa «fti*S cfqSTfafecITTST i AV- 5r 28, i. Here ''f PCcf" (yellow) is explained by Sayawa as equivalent to gold. s^uTfigTS«T flf€TM ^Tff cWW ^rrf^fHf i AV- IJ» 3. 7- Here according to Sayawa ^fi^^g ; = black metal i. e. iron and ^ITff cTff?T. •= rec^ meta^ i-e- copper. The Susruta also differentiates iron by the term krishwaloha (black metal), though copper is. known by its proper name tamra.

HINDU CHEMISTRY

Yajurveda : f^^^ni ^ *r, ^q^ %. 3?JW ^ ir, ^ttf xr F, ag =3 *r g%sT cK^-Tinr i XVIII, 13.

In the Chhandogya Upanishad IV, 17,7. we also- read : " as one binds gold by means of lavarca. (borax), and silver by means of gold, and tin by means of silver, and lead by means of tin, and iron by means of lead, and wood by means of iron, and also b means of leather." <«I^ T ^ *'?«n?T,

Unfortunately very little material is now available to enable us to present a connected nar- rative of the metallurgical skill of the ancient Hindus. Many important links are missing; we shall here try to put together only a few, which we have been able te recover.

Megasthenes says that the Indians were " well skilled in the arts." According to the Greek writer, the soil too has " underground numerous veins of all sorts of metals, for it contains much gold and silver, and copper and iron in no small quantity and even tin and other metals, which are employed in making articles of use and ornament, as well as the implements and accoutrements ofwar."

Coming to comparatively later times, we find that the Indians were noted for their skill in the

I54 HINDU CHEMISTRY

tempering of steel. The blades of Damascus were held in high esteem but it was from India that the Persians and, through them, the Arabs learnt the secret of the operation.1

The wrought-iron pillar close to the Kutub near Delhi which weighs ten tons and is some 1500 years old ; the huge iron girders at Puri ; the orna- mental gates of Somnath and the 24-ft wrought- iron gun at Nurvar — are monuments of a bye-gone art and bear silent but eloquent testimony to the marvellous metallurgical skill attained by the Hindus. Regarding the Kutab pillar, Fergusson says : " It has not, however, been yet correctly -ascertained what its age really is. There is an ins- cription upon it, but without a date. From the form of its alphabet, Prinsep ascribed it to the 3rd or 4th century ; Bhau Daji, on the same evidence, to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century. The truth probably lies between the two. Our own conviction is that it belongs to one of the Chandra Rajas of the Gupta dynasty, either subse- quently to A. D. 363 or A. D. 400.

(i) Vide Trempe du Per Indien : " Elle a ete decouverte par les Indiens et exposee par les Perses, et c'est de ceux-ci qu'elle -nous est venue." — Berthelot : "Coll. Alch Grec.," T. 3, trad. p. 332.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 155

" Taking A. D. 400 as a mean date — and it certainly is not far from the truth — it opens our eye to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than any that have been forged even in Europe up to a very late date, and not frequently even now. As we find them, however, a few cen- turies afterwards using bars as long as this lat in roofing the porch of the temple at Kanaruc, we must now believe that they wrere much more familiar with the use of this metal than they after- wards became. It is almost equally startling to find that after an exposure to wind and rain for fourteen centuries, it is unrusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fourteen centuries ago.

"There is no mistake about the pillar being of pure iron. Gen. Cunningham had a bit of it analysed in India by Dr. Murray, and another por- tion was analysed in the School of Mines here by Dr. Percy. Both found it pure malleable iron with- out any alloy." "Hist, of Indian and Eastern Architecture," p. 508 ; ed 1899.

The Ritter Cecil von Schwarz, who was for sometime in charge of the Bengal Iron Works Company, thus speaks of the superior iron smelting

156 HINDU CHEMISTRY

industry in India : —

"It is well-known by every manufacturer of crucible cast-steel how difficult it is sometimes to get the exact degree of hardness to suit certain purposes, especially with reference to steel for cutting the blades, etc., With the ordinary process, endeavours are made to reach the required degree of hardness by selecting such raw materials as on an average have the required contents of carbon in order to correspond with the required degree of hardness as far as possible. The natives [of India] reached this degree by introducing into their cast- steel an excess__of_carbon, by taking this excess gradually away afterwards, by means of the slow tempering process, having it thus completely in their power to attain the extact degree by interrup- ting this de-carbonsing process exactly at the pro- per time in order to cast steel of a quality exactly suitable for the purpose."

ZlNC

The extraction of zinc from the ores can be followed in every detail from the account left us both in " Rasar^ava" and "Rasaratnasamuchchaya."1

HINDU CHEMISTRY 157

"Rasaka" is mentioned in Rasarvzava as the mine- ral which turns copper into gold (p. 71). We have also in the succeeding couplets a process described for the reduction of the ore. This process is so elaborately given in R. R. S. that it may be quoted almost verbatim in any treatise on modern chemis- try ; it is practically the same as distillation per descensum — the flame of bluish tint issuing from the mouth of the crucible indicates the combustion of carbon monoxide, so often observed in metallur- gical operations.1 (See p. 88).

From the time of the Susruta to that of R. R. S., we find all along six metals recognised (see pp. 48 and 127) and the last work distinctly mentions brass and bell-metal as simply alloys. Owing to the veneration paid to ancient authorities, the Indian alchemists had at first some hesitation in classing "the essence of the lustre of tin "a^iw^" (p. 71) as a separate metal. In the medical Lexicon ascribed to king Madanapala and written about the year

(i) Cf. "A mixture of 2 parts of ground roasted ore and I part of coal dust is brought into the retorts, each holding about 40 lt>s. of the mixture. As soon as the temperature has risen high enough, the reduction begins and carbon monoxide is evolved and burns from the end of the clay adapter with a blue flame (the italics, are ours). Roscoe and Schorlemmer's Chemistry, Vol. II., Pt. I p. 255, ed. 1879.

158 HINDU CHEMISTRY

1374 A. D,, 1 zinc is, however, distinctly recognised as a metal under the designation of Jasada. i

It it evident rasaka is the cadmia of Dioscorid-

es jmd J^liny and tutia of the alchemists of the

middle ages. The pseudo-Basil Valentine writing about 1600 A. D. uses the word zinc but "he does not appear to have classed it with the metals proper." Paracelsus mentions zinc sometimes as a metal and sometimes as a bastard or semi-metal, but it is doubtful whether he had any distinct no- tion of its true character specially as he says, "it has no malleability" (keine malleabilitat hat er) or of the ore which yielded it.3 "Libavius was the first to investigate the properties of zinc more exactly, although he was not aware that the metal

I was derived from the ore known as calamine. He states that a peculiar kind of tin is found in the East Indies called Calaem. Some of this was

I brought to Holland and came into his hands." (Roscoe and Schorlemmer).

The terms rasaka, kharpara, kharpara-tuttha

(i) Roth : "Indischen Studien," XIV, 399 ; also Buhler i

Intro, to Manu, CXXV.

(a) 5TS^ ^S?3J f^fairj^ cl*fffW I

( " Gesch. d. Chemie," IV, 116.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 159

and tuttha are all applied to calamine, while tuttha sometimes stands for blue vitriol as well. Some writers have, however, mistaken kharpara for blue vitriol, but R. R. S. is very explicit on this point. The name tutenague by which Chinese zinc was known in commerce is evidently derived from the Tamil tatanagam. " In Persian, sulphate of zinc is called suffed (white) tutia ; sulphate of copper, neela (blue) tutia ; and sulphate of iron, hura (green) tutia ; so, in Avicenna, different kinds are described under this name, which occurs alsoinGeber" (Royle). Both the Tamil tatana- gam and the Persian tutia are probably corruptions of the Sanskrit word tuttham. At the beginning of the last century the Baron de Sacy was at con- siderable pains in tracing the history of tutia. In a note appended to certain extracts from Kazwinir the " oriental Pliny/' the learned Frenchman gives the following description of tutia. The account necessarily involves some digressions on the Aristotelian theory of the formation of dew, hail- stone, metals, &c., and the reader may with ad- vantage compare it with that of the VaLreshika. Philosophy. (Chap. I, pp. 1-12).

" Le khar-sini est aussi nommefer de la Chine . . . et or cru . . Je crois que ce meme

i6o HINDU CHEMISTRY

metal est aussi designe sous les noms de djosd ou djost dans Flnde, de tutie fossile . . chez les Arabes, enfin & esprit de tutie .... dans F Ayin Acberi, et que c'est la toutenague, dont il y a plusieurs varietes plus ou moins analogues au zinc.

"Je vais rapporter, pour mettre le lecteur a portee de juger de ma conjecture, ce que je trouve dans le Dictionnaire des medicamens simples par Ebn-Beitar, sur les diverses especes de tutie fossile, et un article curieux de \ Ayin Acberi, omis pour la tresgrande partie dans la traduction angloise de M. Gladwin ; j'en donnerai le texte d'apres deux manuscrits de cet ouvrage, dont Tun m'appartient, et Tautre faisoit autrefois partie de la bibliotheque de feu M. Langles et d'apres le Traite de mede- cine, dedie au prince Dara-schekouh, ou il se trouve tout entier (manuscrit de M. Brueix, acquis par la bibliotheque du Roi, n.° 16, fol. 62 et suiv.) Je joindrai a cela ce que dit Kazwini de la forma- tion du khar-sini et de ses usages medicaux et economiques, laissant aux mineralogistes a juger s'i, dans ces descriptions melees d'hypotheses arbitraires, et de quelques traits suspects de char- latanisme, on peut reconnoitre la toutenague.

" Voici d'abord le passage d'Ebn-Bei'tar.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 161

" Edu-\Yafid dit : il y a deux especes de tuties ; 1'une se trouve dans les mines, Tautre dans les fourneaux ou Ton fond le cuivre, comme la cadmie ; •cette derniere espece est ce que les Grecs nom- ment pompholyx. Quant a la tutie fossile, il y en a trois varietes ; Tune blanche, 1'autre verdatre, la derniere d'un jaune fortement rougeatre. Les mines de celle-ci sont dans les contrees maritimes de la mer de Hind et de Sind : la meilleure est celle qui semble au coup-d'ceil couverte de sel ; .apres celle-ci, la June ; quant a la blanche, elle a quelque chose de graveleux .... : et •est percee : on 1'apporte de la Chine. La tutie blanche est la plus fine de toutes les varietes et la verte, la plus grossiere ; quant a la tutie des for- neaux, Dioscoride dit, livre V.e. : Le pompholyx, qui est la tutie, differe du spodion &c"

"L1 Ay in Acberi expose la formation des mineraux et celle des metaux en particulier, suivant une hypothese, commune, je crois, a tous les alchimistes anciens ; et quoique ces details meritent par eux-memes peu d'attention, je rap- porterai le passage en entier, i.° prace que M. Gladwin 1'a omis ; 2.° parce qu'il est necessaire pour que Ton puisse juger de la nature du khar- sini. et de Tidentite que je suppose entre cette

1 1

1 62 HINDU CHEMISTRY

substance metallique et \ esprit de tutie. II y a dans le texte de \ Ayin Acberi quelques omissions que je retablirai d'apres le Traite dedie a Dara- scheko'ih, ou ce chapitre se trouve tout entier, et il n'est pas le seul qui soit commun a ces deux

ouvrages. L'auteur de ce dernier traite",

, annonce lui-meme, fol. 62,

verso, qu'il va tirer quelques chapitres sur les- metaux, de Fouvrage de feu Abou'l Fazel, formant le Hl.e tome de \ Acber-nameh : Pun de ces textes me servira a corriger Fautre.

De la formation des metaux.

"Le dieu createur de Tunivers a donne 1'exist- ence a quatre elemens en opposition les uns aux autres, et il a suscite quatre etres d'une nature admirable : le feu chaud et sec, qui possede une le gerete absolue ; Fair chaud et humide, doue d'une legerete relative ; Feau froide et homide, qui possede une pesanteur relative, la terre froide et seche, douee d'une pesanteur absolue. La chaleur produit la legerete, et le froid la pesanteur ; Fhumidite facilite la separation des parties, la secheresse y met obstacle. Par la combinaison de ces quatre puissances elementaries, ont ete produits tous les etres dont Fexistence est due

HINDU CHEMISTRY 163

['influence des corps celestes, les mineraux, les vegetaux et les animaux.

" Les particules aqueuses, ayant acquis par les rayons du soleil et autres causes un plus grand degre de legerete, se melent avee les particules aeriennes, et s'elevent en Tair : c'est cette combi- naison que Ton nomme vapeurs. Par le moyen de cette combinaison, les molecules terreuses etant melees elles-memes avec les particules aeriennes, s'elevent aussi en 1'air ; et c'est ce qu'on nomme ex- halaisons : quelquefois aussi les particules aeriennes se melent [immediatement] avec les molecules terreuses. II y a des philosophes qui appliquent egalement le nom de vapeurs a ces deux sortes de combinaisons elementaires : ils designent celles qui sont le produit des particules aqueuses, par le nom de vapeures humides ou aqueuses ; et celles qui doivent leur formation aux molecules terreuses, par le nom de vapeurs seches ou fuligineuses. Ce sont ces deux sortes de vapeurs qui forment au-dessus de la terre les nuees, le vent la pluie la neige et autres phe'nomenes semblables ; et dans Finterieur du globe, les tremblemens de terre les sources et les mines. On regarde les vapeurs comme le corps, et les exhalaisons comme 1'esprit : des unes et des autres, suivant la diversite de leurs

164 HINDU CHEMISTRY

combinaisons et les differentes proportions dans les- quelles elles s'unissent, sont produites dans le labora- toire de la nature un grand nombre de substances diverses. Suivant ce qu'on lit dans les traites de phi- losophic, on ne compte pas plus de cinq especes de mineraux : ceux qui sont infusibles a cause de leur secheresse, comme le yakout ; ceux qui le sont a cause de leur humidite, comme le \ofargent ; ceux qui se fondent promptement, mais qui ne sont ni malleable, ni combustibles, comme le vitriol ; ceux qui ne sont pas malleables, mais qui sont combustibles, comme le soufre ; ceux enfin qui sont malleables, mais incumbustibles comme Tor. La fusion d'un corps consiste dans la liquefaction de ses parties, due a la combinaison de la secheresse et de 1'humidite: la malleabilite [ou ductilite] est la faculte qu'a un crops de receivoir peu a peu une augmentation d'etendue, tant en longueur qu'en largeur, sans separation d'aucune de ses parties et sans aucune addition.

" Quand les vapeurs et les exhalaisons se melent de maniere que les premieres soient le principe dominant, et que le melange etant achieve et la coction parfaite, 1'ardeur du soleil coagule cet amal- game, le produit est du vif-argent. Comme il n'y a aucune des molecules de ce produit qui ne ren-

HINDU CHEMISTRY 165

ferme quelque portion cTexhalaison, ce corps a une qualite seche dont les effets sont sensibles : il ne s'attache pas a la main ; au contraire, il fuit le contact : comme la chaleur a ete le principe de sa coagulation, la chaleur ne peut la d£truire. Si les deux principes [les vapeurs et les exhalaisons] se combinent dans des proportions a-peu-pres e'gales, il se manifeste dans le melange une humidite' d'une nature visqueuse et onctueuse : a 1'instant de la fermentation des particules a£riennes s'insinuarit dans le melange qui se coagule alors par le froid, les produits de cet amalgame sont inflammables. Si les exhalaisons et la qualite' onctueuse dominent, le produit est du soufre, qui est rouge, jaune, bleu ou blanc ; s'il y a plus d'exhalaisons et peu de principe onctueux, ramalgame donne Tarsenic qui est rouge et jaune ; enfin si ce sont les vapeurs qui dominent, il se trouve, quand la coagulation est achevee, que le produit est de la naphte qui est noire et blanche. Comme, dans ces amalgames, la coagulation est produite par le froid, ces corps sont fusibles par la chaleur : et a cause de 1'abondance de leur qualite huileuse et de leur humidite' vis- queuse, ils sont susceptibles de prendre feu ; enfin, a raison de leur exc£s d'humidite', ils ne sont point malleables. Les sept corps [ou metaux] ayant

166 HINDU CHEMISTRY

tous pour principes constituans le vif-argent et le soufre, la variete de ces corps ne peut avoir pour cause que les divers degres de purete de ces deux principes, la plus ou moins grande perfection de leur melange, et la diversite d'influence qu'ils exercent Tun sur 1'autre.

"Si les deux principes ne sont alteres par aucun melange de parties terreuses, s'ils sont dans toute leur purete naturelle, si enfin ils eprouvent une coction parfaite, alors le soufre etant blanc et le vif-argent dans une proportion plus grande, le produit de Tamalgame est de Pargent ; il est de Tor, si les deux principes sont dans des proportions egales, et que le soufre soit rouge et possede la force colorante. Si, les circonstances etant les memes, apres le melange mais avant la parfaite coction, ramalgame est coagule par le froid, il se forme du khar-tchini, que Ton nomme aussi fer de la Chine, ce qui £quivaut pour le sens a de Vor cru : quelques-uns le regardent comme une sorte de cuivre." (La meme doctrine sur la formation du khar-tchini ou dhen-tchini, nomme encore or cru, se trouve dans cet ouvrage, fol. 60 recto, lig. I re et suiv). '"' Si le soufre seul n'est pas pur, que le vif-argent domine, et que la force brulante unisse les deux principes, le produit est du cuivre. Quand

HINDU CHEMISTRY 167

le melange n'est pas fait convenablement, et que la proportion du vif-argent est la plus forte, il se forme de 1'etain: quelques-uns pretendent que 1'etain ne se forme pas a moins que les deux prin- •cipes ne soient 1'un et 1'autre dans un etat de purete. Si les deux principes sont mauvais et tres- altere's, qu'il y ait dans le vif-argent des molecules terreuses interposees, et dans le soufre une qualite brulante, il resulte, de I'amalgame, du fer : enfin le produit est du plomb, si, les circonstances etant •d'ailleurs les memes, le melange ne se fait pas com- pletement, et que le vif-argent domine. On donne a ces sept substances le nom de corps ; on appelle le vif-argent la mere des corps, et le soufre leur pere: •on considere aussi le vif-argent comme \ esprit, •et 1'arsenic ainsi que le soufre, comme Vame. Le djost, suivant quelques personnes, est Vesprit de tutie, et approche du plomb : il n'en est fait aucune mention dans les livres de philosophie. II y en a une mine dans 1'Indoustan, dans le territoire de Djalour, qui fait partie du soubah d'Adjmir.

" Les alchimistes disent que Tetain est un argent malade de la lepre, le mercure un argent frappe de paralysie, le plomb un or lepreux et brule, •et le cuivre un or cru, et que 1'alchimiste, sem- blable a un medecin, rem^die a ces maux par des

1 68 HINDU CHEMISTRY

moyens contraires ou assimiles.

" Les savans qui s'adonnent a la pratique des arts, font, avec ces sept corps, des compositions artificielles dont on se sert pour fabriquer des bijoux, joyaux, &c. Du nombre de ces composi- •tions est le sefid-rou [ c'est-a-dire, blanc a I'exterieur, peut-etre le pe-tong des Chinois],. nomme cans i l par les Indiens, qui se compose de quatre seres de cuivre et d'un sere d'e'tain unis par la fusion : le rou'i, compose de quatre seres de cuivre et d'un sere et demi de plomb, et que Ton appelle dans 1'Inde bahngar : le biroundj , nomme par les Indiens petel 2 et dont il y a trois varietes ; la premiere, qui se bat a froid, et contient deux, seres et demi de cuivre, et un sere d'esprit de tutie ; la seconde, qui se bat a chaud, composee de deux seres de cuivre et d'un sere et demi d'esprit de tutie r la troisieme, qui ne se bat point, mais qui s' emploie pour les ouvrages jetes en moule et dans laquelle il entre deux seres de cuivre, et un sere d'esprit de tutie : le sim-sakhteh [argent marque ou pese ; peut-etre faut-il lire soukhteh, brule]," dans la

(1) Kawsya, See p. 114.

(2) Pittala, See p. 114.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 169

composition duquel il entre cle 1'argent, du plomb et du cuivre, dont la couleur est d'un noir eclatant, et qui s'erriploie dans la peinture : le heft-djousch [bouilli sept fois~\, dans lequel on se contente d'amalgamer six me'taux, lorsqu'on n'a pas de khar- tchini ; quelques-uns lui donnent le nom de talikoun [catholicon] ; mais suivant d'autres, le talikoun est un cuivre prepare : \ escht-dhat, com- pose de huit choses, .savoir, les six me'taux susdits,. 1'esprit de tutie et le canst ; on le fait aussi avec sept substances seulement : le caulpatr composer de deux seres de sefid-rou, et d'un sere de cuivre ; il prend une couleur foncee tres-agreable. C'est une des inventions de notre saint empereur."

On the Essence of Minerals

CALAMINE

It will be seen Gladwin's rendering of A'in-i- Akbari is not very reliable ; it may, however, be noted here that even Blochmann in his much im- proved and more accurate translation erroneouslv

d) " Chrestomathie Arabe/' T. III. pp. 453-58 ed. 1827.

i7o HINDU CHEMISTRY

renders fast as u pewter." * The ruh i tutia (spirits of tutia) is used in the above extract in the same sense as in Rasar/zava, which describes zinc as the svattam (essence) of rasaka (see p. 71). In R. R. S. also we find that blue vitriol yields a " svattam," which is no other than copper " 2 (p. 86).

THE VITRIOLS

From the writings of Dioscorides and Pliny it does not appear that the ancient Greeks and Romans drew any sharp distinction between blue

(1) Vol. I. P. 40.

(2) The " essence or spirits of minerals " is used here in a dif- ferent sense from that of the generality of the Arabian and Euro- pean alchemists. According to the latter there are four spirits of minerals, namely, sulphur, arsenic, sal-ammoniac and mercury. ~" Les mots esprits, corps, ames, sont frequemment employes par les alchimistes dans un sens special, qu'il importe de connmtre pour T intelligence de leurs ecrits. Les passages suivants, quoique •d'une epoque plus moderne, jettent beaucoup de lumiere sur ce point."

"On lit dans le traite de Mineralibus, pretendu d' Albert le Grand •(L_ I. tr. I, ch. I er) : 'ce qui s'evapore au feu est esprit, ame, ac- cident ; ce -qui ne s'evapore pas, corps et substance.' — "Coll. des Alch. Grecs," I. pp. 247-8. Cf. " Le cuivre est comme 1'homme ; il a corps et ame." — Introd. a la Chimie des Anciens, p. 294. See -also, " La chimie au moyen age," T. I. p. 73, and ibid. T. in. pp. 168-70; also ante p. 91.

HINDU CHEMISTRY 171

and green vitriol respectively. The word chalcan- thum was applied now to the one, now to the other. * In the Hindu Materi