Rasārṇavakalpa (English critical edition)

Rasārnavakalpa is the title of the Sanskrit manuscript enshrined in the library of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. The manuscript was first noticed by Pandit Haraprasad Shastri, who in his catalogue* briefly described it as one containing "alchemical recipes and mercurial preparations." A preliminary perusal of the manuscript indicated that its material contents were substantial and could throw adequate light on the alchemical or iatro-chemical thoughts and practices existing in India around the 11th century A.D., which, as will be seen below, may be the probable time of this composition.

The manuscript, which is complete with 814 verses written in Nāgara script, contains forty-five folios, each measuring 9½ × 4¼ inches, with ten or eleven lines each. The appearance of the manuscript is old and discolored. It seems that no other copy of this work has been found or mentioned in the published catalogues of any other repositories of oriental manuscripts in India.

On the covering page of the manuscript, a name is mentioned: Raghunātha Śarmaṇa of Malwa (Mālavīya Raghunātha Śarmaṇaḥ). A closer examination of the beginning and end of the manuscript reveals that this name does not indicate the author, but probably the person who procured it. Curiously, in the catalogue of H. P. Shastri, no mention is made of the author.

The manuscript ends with the colophon Original: "इति रुद्रयामलतन्त्रे रसार्णवकल्प सम्पूर्ण:" — Thus concludes the Rasārṇavakalpa in the Rudrayāmalatantra.. After the colophon are some lines written in a dialect ending with the name of the copyist, Sītārāmabhaṭṭa, and the year of copying is given as Saṃvat 1760 1703-1704 A.D.. In addition, a square diagram divided into eight parts, each containing numerical signs from 1–7, is found at the end. The implication of this diagram is not entirely clear, although it might be an esoteric reference to the date of the work's compilation.

The text is written in verse, with the exception of two prose passages (368–370; 651). The style is that of pure classical Sanskrit, similar to other didactic texts. Though generally written in the Anuṣṭubh meter with variations such as Mālinī, Rathoddhatā, Śārdūlavikrīḍita, Sragdharā, Upajāti, and Vaṃśastha, it may be noted that the manuscript contains a few verses which...

* Shastri, Haraprasad, Catalogue of Mss. on Tantra, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, p. 67. No. G 8375.
¹ A number of fragmentary portions dealing with mercurial and metallic preparations are found in the Rudrayāmalatantra, one of the yāmala texts dealing with tantras, which aim at salvation through the unification of Śiva and Śakti by psychic processes. The mercurials are supposed to aid in these psychic attainments.