Rasārṇavakalpa (English critical edition) (1976) - Page 21

Sulphur mixed with red ochre and an equal part of mercury,

combined with the devadālī plant Luffa echinata, used in traditional medicine, turns copper into gold. (363)

White mica, sulphur, mercury, cinnabar, and orpiment in equal parts,

combined with the milky sap of the vajrī plant Euphorbia neriifolia, creates a supreme diamond-hardener. (364)

When mercury is rubbed with yellow sulphur and betel leaf juice,

the wise practitioner should coat copper sheets with it and allow it to rest. (365)

Cooked in a fire of wild cow-dung cakes and cooled, this process is repeated three times.

The copper is thus purified of its base nature and becomes beautiful gold. (366)

Why wonder if yellow sulphur,

rubbed into a paste with the spit of a peacock A traditional alchemical metaphor for specific herbal catalysts,

and cooked in a fire of wild cow-dung cakes,

turns silver into gold in three cycles? (367)

By coating copper with a powder of glass and borax mixed with the juice of the apāmārga Achyranthes aspera and banana plants, and subjecting it to the dolāyantra A traditional swing-steaming apparatus process twenty-one times, the copper melts. (368) It also enters and melts the mica. The aforementioned dolāyantra process is performed using milk, ghee, honey, and oil to destroy the dormant impurities of the sulphur. (369) One should prepare a powder by gradually combining the alkaline ashes of banana, apāmārga, sesame, and mākṣika Iron pyrite/chalcopyrite, mixed with glass powder; place some of this powder at the bottom of the crucible and place the copper on top. (370)

One māṣa A unit of weight, approx. 1 gram of copper sulphate powder and an equal amount of copper sheet,

along with one māṣa of iron pyrites, should be placed on top of that. (371)

Having added glass powder again, seal the crucible.

Heat it in a fire of dried cow dung until the copper becomes liquid. (372)

That copper will undoubtedly become yellow, eight-carat gold.

Sulphur mixed with punarnavā Boerhavia diffusa destroys three types of poisons.

Taken with cow’s ghee, it surely destroys ingested toxins. (373)

Mixed with castor oil, it destroys digestive disorders.

Mixed with iron filings, it destroys anemia. (374)

Mixed with pomegranate juice, it destroys diarrhea.

Taken with jaggery, it instantly destroys all digestive imbalances. (375)

Why say more? When taken with ghee and honey,

a six-month course destroys aging and disease. (376)

Concerning the Preparation of Orpiment tālaka

Having obtained excellent orpiment, which is rare in the three worlds,

the wise practitioner should collect the tāla Orpiment and wash it with rice water. (377)

Having processed it carefully, grind it with sixty grains of rice,

place it in a vessel of water, and strain it thoroughly. (378)

The wise person should make a cake pūpa using this mercurial paste and cook it.

Eat this with honey and ghee for seven nights, without a doubt. (379)

One becomes radiant as the rising sun and pleasing to the eye.

In three cycles of seven days, wrinkles and gray hair vanish. (380)

One gains the brilliance of heated gold and hair like a bumblebee.

Having become as strong as a young serpent, one shall live as long as the moon and stars. (381)

When the month of Āṣāḍha June-July arrives, place it in a pond.

When Kārtika October-November arrives, on an auspicious day, (382)

and under an auspicious constellation, grind it with mercury.

Eat it daily for one continuous month. (383)

When the first seven-day cycle is complete, these are the signs:

One attains the color of heated gold and the appearance of a sixteen-year-old. (384)

Intelligent, charming, and prosperous, one shall live for three hundred years.

By the second seven-day cycle, the hair becomes like the bumblebee. (385)