It is well-known that alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry and iatrochemistry, was inexorably mixed up with the religio-philosophical thought of the culture-area concerned. In India, alchemy seems to have developed, receiving sustenance from the tantrik practices as borne out by the form and contents of the extant rasasastra texts. The present work, the Rasarbavakalpa, which is part of the Rudrayamalatantra, seems to contain a number of alchemical ideas and practices which mark the transitional phase from the tantrik practices based on mercury-sulphur esoterism, to one of iatro-chemical practices involving not only mercury and sulphur but also a number of other minerals and metals. A significant feature of the text is that it describes the use of herbs and their extracts in the treatment of minerals and metals so as to render the latter fit for internal use. In this respect the Rasarnavakalpa appears to have its own characteristics.
So far, only one manuscript of the Rasarnavakalpa has been available, and this is in the collections of the Asiatic Society Library, Calcutta. In one of his publications, the late Acarya P. C. Ray drew the attention of interested scholars to the existence of this valuable source material, and the need for studying it was later stressed by Professor P. Ray who, in fact, initiated the work on this manuscript under the National Commission for the Compilation of History of Sciences in India, of which he was a member and also honorary Shpervisor.
In the present work, the text has been edited as accurately as possible along with an English translation of all the relevant verses. The verses which deal with religious and allied aspects have not been translated into English, but their gists have been noted in the footnotes appropriately. An introduction has been written bringing to the fore some of the important contents of the text. If these prove to be of some help to the scholars who choose to study critically this text as a fresh source material of Indian alchemy and iatro-chemistry, our humble efforts will have been rewarded amply.
We are beholden indeed to late Professor T. R. Seshadri, F.R.S., for giving valuable suggestions. Our special thanks are due to Pandit S. L. Bhattacharyya for his help in editing the Sanskrit text, and to Dr. D. Joshi, Department of Rasasastra, Post-Graduate Institute of Indian Medicine, Benaras Hindu University, for his suggestion. We are also thankful to Mrs. S, Mitra, Assistant Editor, Indian National Science Academy for her technical assistance.
Rasarnavakalpa is the title of the manuscript in Sanskrit, which is 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 quite considerable indeed and that they might throw adequate light on the alchemical or iatrochemical thoughts and practices in existence in India in about the eleventh century A.D., which, as will be seen below, might be the probable time of this textual composition.
The manuscript, which is complete with 814 verses written in Nagara script, contains forty-five folia, each folium measuring 91/2x 41/1 and having ten or eleven lines. The appearance of the manuscript is old and discoloured. It would seem that no other copy of this work has been found or mentioned in the published catalogues of any of the other repositories of oriental manuscripts in India.
On the covering page of the manuscript is mentioned a name, Raghunatha Sarmana of Malwa (Malaviya Raghunatha Sarmanah). A closer examination of the portions at the beginning and at the end of the manuscript reveals that this name does not indicate the compiler of this work but probably signifies its procurer. Curiously, in the catalogue of H. P. Shastri, no mention is made of the author of the work.
The manuscript ends with the colophon इति रूद्रयामलतन्त्रे रसार्णवकल्प सम्पूर्णः After the colophon are some lines written in a sort of a dialect ending with the name of the copyist, Sitaramabhatta and the year of copying is given as Samvat 1760. In addition, a square diagram having eight parts, each of which contains numerical signs from 1-7, is also found at the end. The implication of this diagram is not quite clear although the possibility of this diagram being an esoteric implication of the date of the compilation of the work cannot be ruled out.
The text is written in verses with the exception of two prose passages (368-370; 651). The style adopted is of pure classical Sanskrit like that of the other texts of didactic nature. Though generally written in the Anustubh metre with variations such as Malini, Rathoddhata, Sardulavikridita, Sragdhara, Upajati and Vamsastha, it may he pointed out that the manuscript, contains a few verses which do not follow established metrical rules. The verses (as already noted 814 in number) are divided into certain kalpas on the basis of the uses of different vegetable, mineral and other natural products. The division of the whole subject matter into kalpas is somewhat new in the gamut of Indian alchemical literature.
The work is of mixed character, consisting as it does of the alchemical processes and preparations on the one hand and the symbolic or esoteric tantrik rites on the other. Some portions of the text where the ritual matters are interwoven with alchemical ideas, the style of expression with symbolic connotations is to some extent obscure and enigmatic. This type of composition is known as sandhyabhasa or 'intentional' language which often finds expression in tantrik literature.
It would appear that the Rasarnavakalpa might have been composed in the Vindhya region, having the boundary of the river Candrabhaga in the West. the Sona in the East, and the Narmada in the South on the basis of internal evidence, for example, the description of the alchemical properties of earth and water of mountainous regions such as those of Mahendra, Malaya, Amarakantaka, Nagamandala and rivers like the Candrabhaga, the Sona and the Narmada. This assumption of placing the composition of the text in tha Vindhya region is supported by the place of composition of the Rudrayamalatantra (of which, as stated before, the Rasarnavakalpa is a part) in Visnukranta region which, according to the ancient authorities extended from the Vindhya mountain to Chattala (Chittagong)
Probable date of the text
The date of the Rasarnavakalpa is not exactly known. A portion of this text, from vss. 78 to 207, is found to occur almost in an unaltered form in the well-known rasasastra text called . the Rasarnava which is believed to be a work of about the twelfth century A.D. The latter has also borrowed a number of verses from the Rasaratnakara of Nagarjuna, which seems to belong to the eighth or ninth century A.D. The Rasarnavakalpa which is a bigger text than the Rasaratnakara but smaller than the Rasarnva, has in it only one verse taken from the Rasaratnakara (vs. 367). From the point of view of the contents, arrangement and presentation of matter in terms of kalpas, as also frequent references to even profane tantrik rites, the Rasarnavakalpa appears to lie midway between the Rasaratnakara and the Rasarnava. The tantrik elements described in the Rasarnavakalpa are Brahmanical (as against the Buddhist Rasaratnakara) and in tune with those mentioned in the Rasarnava. It is well-known that the flourishing period of the rasasastra texts was between the tenth and the sixteenth century A.D. although the alchemical practices were in vouge a century or two earlier. The Rasarnavakalpa appears to mark the beginning of this flourishing period. From a consideration of the foregoing facts, the date of the Rasarnavakalpa may be taken to lie between the tenth and twelfth century A.D., possibly about the eleventh century A.D.'
As to the originality of the Rasarnavakalpa, it seems to be in the nature of a codification of the then prevalent alchemical knowledge. It may be mentioned that the treatment of the subject is not uniform or continuous as we find it in the Rasarnava for that matter. In addition, the emphasis on certain rites and tantrik practices to be observed before the use of plants and other substances. the mythological accounts even with regard to the origin of plants, minerals and mineral-waters, the esoteric approach to the alchemical procedures and the like, in contradistinction to what we find in the Rasarnava on similar matters, point out that the Rasarnavakalpa represents a compilation of alchemical practices which were in a formative stage. Although the Rasarnav has in chapter XII a number of verses which are almost identical with those found in the Rasarnavakalpa (vss. 78-207), it is very difficult, on the basis of our present knowledge on the subject, to conclude that the former is borrowed from the latter. The possibility of a common source to both the works cannot be brushed aside easily. However, it may be conjectured that the Rasarnavakalpa might have been an earlier compilation than the Rasarnava. This appears to be substantiated. to some extent, by the fact that the Rasarnavakalpa places more emphasis on the material immortality and the transmutation processes than on the iatrochemical methods which characterize the later phase of the Indian alchemy.
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