Part 2 - Different kinds of Mercury

Owing to the difference in nature of the. soil of deposit, mercury is of five different kinds, viz., Rasa, Rasendra, Suta, Parada, and Mishraka. Of these Rasa is red, free from all harm, and is the destroyer of senility and diseases. By taking it the inhabitants of Svarga became free from infirmity and early death. Rasendra is free from defects; is black, coarse, and very subtle. By the use of this mercury, the Naga people (perhaps the inhabitants of the Himalayas of old), came to be free from old age and diseases. Mines of these two kinds of mercury were therefore filled in by the gods with mud and stone. Thenceforward, these two kinds of mercury have been very rare in the earth. Sutaka is a little yellow, coarse, full of some evil properties, but, if subjected to the eighteen different methods of purification, it makes the body as hard as steel. Another kind of mercury, named Parada, is full of many evil properties, is subtle and white, but, by various processes, may be rendered a panacea. The fifth kind of mercury, named Mishraka, has the complexion of a peacock’s feather, and becomes very efficacious, if subjected to the eighteen different methods of purification.

Owing to the difference in nature of the soil of deposit, mercury may assume four different colours viz., white, red, yellow, and black. Preference is to be given to the white in the matter of curing of diseases; to the red in the matter of removal of senility and prevention of diseases; to the yellow, in the matter of transformation and incineration of metals; and to the black, in the matter of attainment of power to move in the air.