Part 1 - Characteristics of Iron (lauha)

Properties of lauha

(a) Iron (lauha) is sweet, astringent, and bitter in taste; cold; laxative; heavy; coarse; preventer of senile-decay; improver of eye-sight; reducer of fat; and increaser of a little of vayu (wind) in the system. It pacifies an excess of kapha (phlegm) and pitta (animal heat); and cures toxin, colic, swelling of the body, piles, spleen, anemsea, obesity, spermatorrhoea and worms.

(b) Iron increases strength and longevity. It cures diseases and is an aphrodisiac. It is one of the best remedies for senility.

Natural blemishes of iron.

The following are the seven blemishes of iron;—heaviness, hardness, mixture with foreign matters, power of causing hysteria, power of causing inflammation, evil characteristics of stone, and power of causing constipation.

Evil effects of taking impure iron.

Iron, not properly purified and incinerated, gives rise to the following:—impoteney, leprosy, death, heart disease, colic, stone disease, hiccough, and even augmentation of many of the diseases the patient has already heen suffering from.

Varieties of iron (1).

Iron is of the following different kinds: (a) Samanya or ordinary, (b) Krauncha (c) Kalinga (d) Bhadra (e) Vajra (f) Pandi (g) Niraba, and (h) Kanta.

Of these, (b) is twice as efficacious as (a); (c) is eight times as efficacious as (a); (d) is ten times as efficacious as (c); (e) is thousand times as efficacious as (d); (f) is hundred times as efficacious as (e); (g) is ten times as efficacious as (f); and (h) is thousand times as efficacious as (g).

Note: This classification was in vogue at the time of King Rama Chandra, the hero of Ramayana. The present day Indians are unable to identify these different kinds of iron. Such ancient chemists as Nityanatha, Bagbhat, etc. were also ignorant of this classification. This is due to an incredibly great decline in our knowledge of industrial chemistry since the time of the great Rama Chandra. That the ancient Indians attained a high degree of scientific knowledge is evident from the famous iron pillar of Delhi, which, according to the inscription, was erected as a monument by King Chandra who was most probably the founder of the Chandra dynasty (wrongly translated as “Lunar: Dynasty”) This huge pillar has been exposed, for several thousands of years, to the roughness and extreme variations of a tropical climate, hut no rust has grown on its amazingly smooth and glossy surface. The same remarks apply to the cannons lying in Visnupur (Bengal) and to the iron beams used in the famous temple (now in ruins) of Konarka in Orissa.

It is a matter of wonder and great significance that the ancient Hindus were able, long, long before the birth of Christ, to forgo such huge pillars and beams; and to prepare a kind of iron the like of which modern scientists have not yet been able to produce. It is a sheer want of encouragement that- accounts for the present state of deplorable forgetfulness in this direction.

Varieties of iron (2).

Iron (lauha) is of three different kinds, viz. (a) Munda (b) Tikshna, and (c) Kanta. The second is better than the first and the third is better than the second.