Rasa Jala Nidhi, vol 2: Minerals (uparasa)
by Bhudeb Mookerjee | 1938 | 28,803 words | ISBN-10: 8170305829 | ISBN-13: 9788170305828
This second volume of the Rasa-jala-nidhi deals with the purification, incineration and medicinal uses of various minerals (uparasa), as well as preventing faults due to misuse. It is continued in the third volume which deals with the various metals. The Rasa-jala-nidhi (“the ocean of Iatrochemistry, or, chemical medicine) is a compendium of Sansk...
Part 3 - Preparations of Hingula
First process.
Hingula is to be broken into pieces of the size of chana gram and kept in a pot made of lead or iron. It is then to be heated steadily. When heated, it is to be saturated with each of the liquids undermentioned, the quantity of the latter being equal to the hingula itself. When one of the liquids gets dried up, the hingula is to be saturated with the liquid next mentioned, and so on. The juice or liquids are;—ram’s milk for ten times, juice of kshirika for ten times, juice of arka for ten times, decoction of the dipta varga for ten times, juice of virekarka (pilu) for five times, dugdha varga (see page 303, vol 1). for five times.
The hingula is then to be subjected to bhavana with all the liquids mentioned above, one by one, in order of their merit.
This hingula is called the “Shatarka-darada”, or the hingula which has been prepared with one hundred liquids. This cures various diseases and is a “jogabahi” or a medicine which enhances the properties of a thing with which it is taken.
Second process.
Two palas of purified hingula are to be confined in a piece of cloth, four-folded. Six palas of the root of kandari (gopala-karkati or palandu?) are to be rubbed well and made into a paste, with which is to be coated the surface of the bundle containing hingula, the whole thing being made into a ball which is to be wrapped up well with eranda leaves and then coated very carefully with mud, and dried. This ball is to be heated by puta with a fire made of ten pieces of cowdung cakes. This is to be done for one hundred and one times. The medicine, thus prepared, is equal in potency to rasa-sindura, prepared carefully. Dose, one rakti a day to be taken with an equal quantity of powdered lavanga.
Third process.
Purified hingula is to be wrapped up by means of a fine piece of cloth, coated all over with a paste made of onion, and made into a ball, which is to be covered with eranda leaves and then with mud and rags. The ball is then to be dried and heated by a puta by means of fire made of ten pieces of cow-dung cakes. The process is to be performed one hundred times. It is again to be performed hundred times with each of the following, used as paste, instead of onion;—egg fruit, fruit of indra baruni, and ripe amla-vetasa fruit, Hingula is thus subjected to puta for four hundred times, i. e., one hundred times with each of the following:—onion, egg fruit, indra baruni, and amla-vetasa. The medicine, thus prepared, is to be taken with betel leaf in doses of one rakti a day. Thus used, it cures asthma, cough, fever, increases retentive and faculties, beauty, memory, and procreative energy. It also has the power to prevent and cure senility.
Conclusion:
This concludes ‘Preparations of Hingula’ included in Bhudeb Mookerjee Rasa Jala Nidhi, vol 2: Initiation, Mercury and Laboratory. The text includes treatments, recipes and remedies and is categorised as Rasa Shastra: an important branch of Ayurveda that specialises in medicinal/ herbal chemistry, alchemy and mineralogy, for the purpose of prolonging and preserving life.