You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
The Siddhayoga of Vrinda is an Ayurvedic-Tantric treatise<br />
which discusses the external and internal uses of mercury. A<br />
preparation called parpatitamram, which contains mercury and<br />
was taken internally, was prepared by pounding sulphur and<br />
copper pyrites together with mercury and roasting the mixture in<br />
a closed crucible. The product thus obtained was administered<br />
with honey. This process probably produced sulphides of copper<br />
and mercury. Sulphide of mercury was also the main ingredient of<br />
another preparation called rasamrita-churan. To make it, one part<br />
of sulphur and half its weight of mercury were rubbed together<br />
and then administered with honey and clarified butter. Killed<br />
copper, blue vitriol, rock salt and a few vegetable ingredients<br />
compounded together formed a collyrium for the eyes.<br />
Many foreign travellers to India, notably Marco Polo, Al-<br />
Biruni and Francois Bernier, recorded their observations on the<br />
remarkable uses of mercury as a restorative and stimulant. Marco<br />
Polo, describing 'the chugchi [yogis] who live 150 or 200 years',<br />
wrote: 'These people make use of a very strange beverage, for they<br />
make a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixed together and this<br />
they drink twice every month. They say this gives them long life,<br />
and it is a potion they are used to take from their early childhood.'<br />
Despite the apparent simplicity of these recipes and procedures,<br />
it should not be assumed that the mere mechanical mixture of<br />
compounds will yield immediate results. Indeed, the effectiveness<br />
of these formulae is not the literal interpretation of the alchemical<br />
texts but lies within a body of closely guarded secret processes and<br />
considerations. Researches of the contemporary alchemist Armand<br />
Barbault have met with scepticism based on a simplistic view:<br />
Armand Barbault, a contemporary alchemist, achieved after twelve years<br />
what he calls in his book L' Or du millieme matin (Paris 1969) the 'vegetable<br />
gold' or Elixir of the first degree. This elixir was thoroughly analysed and<br />
tested by German and Swiss laboratories and doctors. It proved its great<br />
value and efficacy, especially in the treatment of very serious heart and<br />
kidney ailments. But it could not be fully analysed nor, therefore,<br />
synthesized. Its preparation required such peculiar care, and took so long,<br />
that eventually all hopes of commercialization were abandoned. The<br />
scientists who examined it declared that they were in the presence of a<br />
new state of matter having mysterious and perhaps deeply significant<br />
qualities. 25<br />
This is not an isolated case. Dr P. C. Ray, in his History of Hindu<br />
Chemistry, emphasizes the inscrutability of alchemical preparations<br />
and records that Nagarjuna, (c. 8th century AD) the father of Indian<br />
alchemy, had to undergo twelve years of asceticism to know the<br />
hidden secret. 26<br />
Suryakalanal chakra.<br />
111