Part 1 - Characteristics of Anjana (stibnite, lead sulphide)

Anjana is of five different kinds, viz, (1) sauvira-anjana, (2) nilanjana, (3) rasanjana. (4) srotonjana, (5) kulatthanjana, and (6) puspanjana. All of them are efficacious in eye diseases.

(1) Sauviranjana.

This can be obtained in the beds of river, Suvira. It has the colour of smoke, is cool, and is efficacious in hemorrhage, poison, hiccough, eye disease, and boils.

(2) Nilanjana.

It is blue, heavy, soothing, beneficial to eye-sight, remover of the three doshas, destroyer of senile decay, killer of gold, and has the property of softening the metals.

(3) Rasanjana.

Rasanjana is of three different kinds, of which the first is obtained in nature in the form of stone, whereas the second and the third are prepared artificially.

(a) The first kind of rasanjana is obtained from rocks in Turkey, It is yellowish in colour, and con-tains mercury as one of its constituents. It is pun-gent and bitter in taste, and pacifies phlegm, poison, carbuncles, and eye diseases. It produces heat in the system, prevents and cures senile decay, and cures obesity.

(b) The second kind of rasanjana is an exudation or concentrated decoction of yellow sandal. It is yellowish in colour. It cures diseases pertaining to the mouth, asthma, hiccough, and an excess of vayu, pitta, and blood.

(c) The third kind of rasanjana is prepared by boiling daru haridra with an equal quantity of milk and condensing the mixture into one fourth its original quantity. This rasanjana is also very efficacious in eye diseases.

(4) Srotoniana.

It is cool, soothing, astringent, and sweet. It is efficacious in obesity, eye-diseases, hiccough, poison, nausea, excess of phlegm and animal heat, and impurities of the blood. It has the appearance of the top of a mound of earth raised by white ants; when broken into pieces, its inner surfaces appear to have the colour of a blue lotus, but if rubbed, they turn red as red ochre.

(5) Kulatthanjana.

This is black in colour, astringent, pungent, cool, and is efficacious in eye-diseases, poison, boils, itches, and carbuncle. It also cures a kind of leprosy, called kakana, and jaundice at a very advanced stage.

(6) Puskpanjana.

It is white, soothing, and cool. It cures all sorts of eye-diseases, hic-cough of a very virulent type, and fever due to poison.