Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is part of the reconstruction of alchemical procedures according to a tenth-century Indian alchemical text written in Sanskrit, the Rasahṛdayatantra ("The Heart of Mercury"). The fifth alchemical procedure, sublimation (pātana), requires the use of copper paste (śulbapiṣṭi), but it gives no explanation of what the paste consists of or how it is made. The Mugdhāvabodhinī, a ca 16th-century commentary of the Rasahṛdayatantra, states that it is a mercury-copper paste, but doesn’t provide further instructions.
Here, we start with copper sheet. Indian alchemical works often describe the application of 'purification' (śodhana) procedures to metals and other substances before their use in the main procedures. The processed copper is used for making copper paste in the pātana procedure afterwards.
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.
This is part of the reconstruction of alchemical procedures according to a tenth-century Indian alchemical text written in Sanskrit, the Rasahṛdayatantra ("The Heart of Mercury"). The fifth alchemical procedure, sublimation (pātana), requires the use of copper paste (śulbapiṣṭi), but it gives no explanation of what the paste consists of or how it is made. The Mugdhāvabodhinī, a ca 16th-century commentary of the Rasahṛdayatantra, states that it is a mercury-copper paste, but doesn’t provide further instructions.
Here, we start with copper sheet. Indian alchemical works often describe the application of 'purification' (śodhana) procedures to metals and other substances before their use in the main procedures. The processed copper is used for making copper paste in the pātana procedure afterwards.
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.
