1.1. Materials (a): Gold

Gold is a yellow coloured precious metal. Basically it is a metal, used by people of high economic status. But as far as its religious uses are concerned, it is essential for all; for a piece of gold is associated with every religious rite. Use of gold ornaments was popular since Vedic times. A number of synonyms are used in our literature for gold. Gold is known by several names on the basis of its colour, origin and purity. Its origin can be divided into three heads -mythical, transmutational and obtained from mines. Descriptions regarding its purification and other processes are found in the texts, literary as well as scientific. In addition to its decorative as well as religious purposes, it is used as medicine in different forms.

In Vedas, gold is generally known by the names Harita and Hiraṇya which means yellow^[1]. According to Atharvaveda^[2], gold is originated from fire or sun. That is why it remains lustrous. It is also stated that this immortal metal has the power to provide long life to one who wears it. Gṛhyasūtras point out the importance of gold in Ṣoḍaśakarma. At the Annaprāśa (The first feeding ceremony), the child is fed with honey and ghee by his father. To this mixture, gold is rubbed^[3]. Śāṅkhāyana-gṛhyasūtra^[4] gives the description in another way, as per which the mixture of honey and ghee is kept in a gold plate. Relevance of gold in the ceremonies associated with the birth of a child, i.e. Jātakarma is pointed out in Hiraṇyakeśīgṛhyasūtra (Hiraṇyakeśī-gṛhyasūtra) and Āpastamba-gṛhyasūtra^[5]. On the occasion of marriage, a piece of gold is kept on the head of the bride at the time of the ritual bath. Āśvalāyana-gṛhyasūtra^[6] gives details of a house warming ceremony, in which a piece of gold is placed in the water used to sprinkle around the house. During the funeral, the seven passages of breath of a corpse should be filled with seven pieces of gold dipped in honey or clarified butter. Gold is needed in every stage of Agnicayana ritual. At the Vājapeya sacrifice, the priests, sacrificer and his wife used to wear gold chains.

We have references in Mahābhārata, regarding the extraction and mining of gold. But from the verse—

[...].^[7]

It comes to know that the process of extracting gold needed great effort in that period. While describing the imperial sacrifice of Yudhiṣṭhira, it is said that the gifts received by Yudhiṣṭhira include gold digged out by ants (Pipīlikā). In the absence of clear evidence, this description may be considered as an exaggeration. However, it may have been due to the possibility of getting gold even from the diggings made by ants. This shows that gold was so near to the surface in those regions.

Purāṇas^[8] call gold by the name Suvarṇa, Kāñcana and Kanaka. Like Vedas, Purāṇas also link the origin of gold with fire. In addition to this, Garuḍapurāṇa (Garuḍapurāṇa)^[9] puts forward another method for producing gold. As per this method, when burning a mixture of yellow flowers of Dhustūra, lead weighing five Pala and a bunch of Lakuca, gold will be generated.

Kauṭiliya^[10] divides gold basically into three—Jātarūpa, Rasasiddha and Ākarodgata. Jātarūpa is naturally pure, Rasasiddha is chemically purified and Ākarodgata is that got directly from mines, which is impure. Besides these, he talks about another five divisions in accordance with the colour and the region from where it is excavated. T

he table given below describes this classification.

Name	Colour	Region
Jampūnada	Resembles rose apple	Meru mountain
Śātakumbha	Similar to pollen of lotus flower	Śatakumbha mountain
Hāraka	Looks like Śevati flower	Gold mines
Vaiṇava	Like that of Karṇikāra flower	Veṇu mountain
Śṛṅgīśuktija	Mensil	Suvarṇabhūmi region

Kauṭiliya opines that Śātakumbha is the best among these, while gold with red colour is inferior. Regarding gold ores, Kauṭiliya mentions two types -solid ore and liquid ore. Their colours and other features are also listed by him. Mention is also made of gold purification, gold plating and enamelling on gold.

In Nāṭyaśāstra^[11], certain characters like Yakṣiṇī and nymphs are recommended to wear gold ornaments.

Gold is considered the wealth of a nation. Aśvaghoṣa points out this fact in Buddhacarita^[12]. We get evidence in Saundarananda to gold washers, engaged in cleaning the dirty gold. Buddhacarita gives allusions to gold excavated from the regions of Himālaya and Kāñcanaparvata and also from the river beds. It may be because of the abundance of gold in that region that the mountain is named as Kāñcanaparvata.

Amarakośa^[13] gives eighteen synonyms of gold. They are—(1) Kanaka, (2) Hiraṇya, (3) Hema, (4) Hāṭa, (5) Japanīya, (6) Śātakumbha, (7) Gāṅgeya, (8) Bharma, (9) Karvara, (10) Cāmīkara, (11) Jātarūpa, (12) Mahārajata, (13) Kāñcana, (14) Rukma, (15) Kārtasvara, (16) Jāmbūnada, (17) Aṣṭāpada and (18) Suvarṇa. Śṛṅgīkanaka is the name given by Amarakośa to gold ornaments in general. Mention is also made of Kṛpāṇī and Kartarī, which are scissors used for cutting gold.

Caraka^[14] indicates the use of gold as a drug. He describes the preparation of gold powder for making tonic. Suśruta also recommends gold tonic, which is a mixture of gold dust, lotus seed and honey.

Daṇḍi^[15] gives evidence to the purification and melting process of gold. Gold was used for decorative purposes in the powder and liquid form in that period.

Rasārṇava^[16] describes the transmutation of copper into gold, in which copper is converted into gold through a process, where a mixture of Rasaka and some organic matters is to be roasted with copper. The same process is described by Nāgārjuna in his Rasaratnākara. From Rasārṇava, we get evidence to the ‘Killing’ of gold. There it is said that a Vida contained in the crucible, smeared with the milk of Arka plant will kill the gold. Similarly the transmutation of iron, lead and copper by means of calamine is also possible.

Rasaratnasamuccaya divides gold into five heads on the basis of their source. They are as follows—

[...].^[17]

Of these, the first three are associated with myths, fourth one is obtained from the mines and the last is produced by converting the baser metals. In the ‘killing’ process of gold referred to in the same text, the perforated gold leaves having the coating of a mixture of lemon juice and ashes of mercury are to be heated ten times. For getting the pure colour of gold, gold leaves with the coating of salt are to be heated in charcoal fire for one and a half hour. For heating these leaves, they should be placed between two earthen plates. In another method described by Nāgārjuna^[18], gold can be purified by heating the gold coated with the mixture of salts and ashes for three days.

Kākacanḍeśvarīmatatantra^[19] talks about some techniques of transferring a base metal into gold. Thus according to the text, mercury can convert a base metal into thousand times weight of gold. But the mercury gains this power only on rubbing with the mixture of Vida^[20] and heated in a closed crucible. Mercury prepared in this manner converts copper into gold.

The technique of converting a base metal into gold by means of melted copper, silver or lead is described in Rasaprakāśasudhākara^[21]. For this purpose, the melted minerals should be alloyed with the digested mixture of calamine, cinnabar, copper pyrites, realgar and milky juice of Arka.

Dhātumañjarī^[22] talks about the preparation of gold from the alloys of lead and copper. The text also speaks of preparing imitation gold by alloying gold with one hundred times its weight of copper. In another process, reddish yellow gold is produced by melting zinc and gold in a certain proportion. To this mixture, alkalis are added and heated in a closed crucible. Suvarṇatantra^[23] explains the process of converting base metal into gold by means of mercury. Mercury attains this power, when rubbed with the root of a certain plant, which is bulb shaped, contains an oily substance. When this oil is added into molten copper, the latter will turn into gold. The colour of gold thus produced resembles the lustre of rising sun.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Atharvaveda5

[2]:

19.26.1

[3]:

Āśvalāyana-gṛhyasūtra, I.15.1

[4]:

1.24.3,4

[5]:

Hiraṇyakeśī-gṛhyasūtra, 2.3.2; Āpastamba-gṛhyasūtra, 2.1.3

[6]:

2.9.6,7

[7]:

Udyogaparva, 34.32

[8]:

Garuḍapurāṇa, 2.31.4; Skandapurāṇa, 5.3.2075.2.6, 7; Matsyapurāṇa, 85.5; Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, 181.7

[9]:

1.84

[10]:

DAOAI, p.137, 138

[11]:

XXI.56-76

[12]:

I.27, II.2,V.42; Saundarananda, I.19, X.12, 20, 25, XIII.4, X.5, XV.66, XVI.80

[13]:

2.9.95

[14]:

AHHC, p.25

[15]:

Avantisundarīkathā, pp.32,74, 91, 101, 148, 88

[16]:

AHHC, p.13

[17]:

Ibid, pp. 43-44

[18]:

Ibid, p.5

[19]:

Ibid, p.47-48

[20]:

Vida is a powder prepared with certain organic or inorganic matters. It can be of several types, according to the ingredients it contained. Some types of Vida are as follows.—1. A mixture of salt petre, green vitriol, sea salt, rock salt, mustard, borax, camphor and pyrites.; 2. Mixture of Kāsisa (green vitriol), rock salt, pyrites, Sauvīra, salt petre, sulphur, juice of Mālatī an aggregate of three spices (black pepper, long pepper and dry ginger.); 3. Sulphur, sea salt, salt ammonia, borax, ashes, urine (AHHC, p.72.)

[21]:

Ibid, p.65

[22]:

Ibid, pp.88, 97, 98

[23]:

Ibid pp. 28-31