Essay name: Alchemy in India and China
Author:
Vijaya Jayant Deshpande
Affiliation: Panjab University / Department of Chemistry
The thesis "Alchemy in India and China" explores the comparative aspects of alchemy in these two countries, focusing on chemical and protochemical formulations while addressing why modern science developed in the West rather than in India or China. It briefly touches upon internal alchemy in China and the ritualistic tantra in India.
Chapter 5 - Transmission of Alchemical and Chemical ideas
34 (of 39)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
125
Sloka 170 Press the paste into pellets and dry
them in sun. Encase the pellets in Puniru (a kind
of soil). Calcine them in kamalaththi (low heat)
for four Jamams (one Jamam is two hours). You
will obtain a potential kalangu45 from this
process. Added to copper in the proportion one
to fifty, it will turn copper into silver. It
is not an alloy but pure China Silver.
This is the only place where we come across a
reference to China. The one obtained in the above process
is an alloy of tin, iron, copper, silver, mercury and
arsenic. The final product must be silvery-white and
lustrous since the author writes, "This is not an alloy
but Pure China Silver."
Silver, when diluted with relatively large amounts
of other base metals, still maintains its colour and
lustre. When copper is added to silver in large
quantities, the resulting alloy is well known to be
silvery-white. It seems the author of Bogar karpam is
using this property of silver in his "China Silver"
method.
One such silver-coloured alloy was imported from
China to Europe in the seventeenth century. It was used
46 45.
Kalangu
-
A preparation of the above kind, which
when mixed in small quantities to large quantity of base
metal, converts it into noble metals.
46.
Needham, Joseph (1), Vol. 5, Pt. II, p. 226.
