Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week 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 fifth procedure, the "letting fall" or sublimation (Sanskrit: pātana) of mercury. The purpose of this procedure is to fully remove the toxic elements of lead and tin presumed present in mercury. The text states:
"Having prepared a copper paste, a condensation procedure is conducted because of suspicion of remaining lead and tin. And, thus freed of its faults, the cleansed mercury condensates." (Rasahṛdayatantra, chapter 2, verse 8)
Notably, the text gives no information on what the copper paste is. The commentary states that it is a copper-mercury mixture, but does not give any further information on the ratio between the two substances. We assumed that the copper needs to be purified first: see these films we made on purifying copper sheets and powder and making copper powder.
Preparing copper powder youtu.be/MCEam84_q64
Purifying copper youtu.be/NBTZakuqMbQ
Purifying copper powder youtu.be/X88fxDex01Q
This film shows the making of the copper-mercury paste with copper sheet, specially prepared copper powder, and commercially prepared copper powder and the subsequent sublimation process.
Also see the accompanying blog post: ayuryog.org/blog/fifth-procedure-letting-fall
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 fifth procedure, the "letting fall" or sublimation (Sanskrit: pātana) of mercury. The purpose of this procedure is to fully remove the toxic elements of lead and tin presumed present in mercury. The text states:
"Having prepared a copper paste, a condensation procedure is conducted because of suspicion of remaining lead and tin. And, thus freed of its faults, the cleansed mercury condensates." (Rasahṛdayatantra, chapter 2, verse 8)
Notably, the text gives no information on what the copper paste is. The commentary states that it is a copper-mercury mixture, but does not give any further information on the ratio between the two substances. We assumed that the copper needs to be purified first: see these films we made on purifying copper sheets and powder and making copper powder.
Preparing copper powder youtu.be/MCEam84_q64
Purifying copper youtu.be/NBTZakuqMbQ
Purifying copper powder youtu.be/X88fxDex01Q
This film shows the making of the copper-mercury paste with copper sheet, specially prepared copper powder, and commercially prepared copper powder and the subsequent sublimation process.
Also see the accompanying blog post: ayuryog.org/blog/fifth-procedure-letting-fall
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.
