Uploaded May 2020 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Indian alchemy - Rasashastra - is the craft of making elixirs from mercury. From the tenth century, Indian alchemists started composing treatises about their work. The earliest of these treatises was the 'Heart of Mercury' (Rasahṛdayatantra). It describes eighteen procedures for making mercurial elixirs.
We reconstructed these procedures. This film shows the second procedure, the trituration (Sanskrit: mardana) of mercury with several other substances. The purpose of this procedure is to remove contaminants from mercury. The text states:
"Trituration with sour gruel is carried out for three days with molasses, burnt wool, and salt, together with soot, brickdust, and mustard, each in the amount of a sixteenth part to the mercury.
(Rasahṛdayatantra, chapter 2, verse 4)
The text gives limited information on each procedure, so that a reconstruction necessarily involves using other sources as well. Some uncertainty, however, remains.
The following procedures were executed by a trained professional and should not be attempted without expert supervision.
A collaboration of AyurYog (ayuryog.org) and neterapublishing (neterapublishing.com).
This project was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under grant agreement No.639363.
Indian alchemy - Rasashastra - is the craft of making elixirs from mercury. From the tenth century, Indian alchemists started composing treatises about their work. The earliest of these treatises was the 'Heart of Mercury' (Rasahṛdayatantra). It describes eighteen procedures for making mercurial elixirs.
We reconstructed these procedures. This film shows the second procedure, the trituration (Sanskrit: mardana) of mercury with several other substances. The purpose of this procedure is to remove contaminants from mercury. The text states:
"Trituration with sour gruel is carried out for three days with molasses, burnt wool, and salt, together with soot, brickdust, and mustard, each in the amount of a sixteenth part to the mercury.
(Rasahṛdayatantra, chapter 2, verse 4)
The text gives limited information on each procedure, so that a reconstruction necessarily involves using other sources as well. Some uncertainty, however, remains.
The following procedures were executed by a trained professional and should not be attempted without expert supervision.
A collaboration of AyurYog (ayuryog.org) and neterapublishing (neterapublishing.com).
This project was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under grant agreement No.639363.
