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 6 - Transmission of Alchemical and Chemical ideas (Part 2)
27 (of 48)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
157
Such water is referred to in ancient Indian
texts as "Visodaka" meaning poisonous water, an account
of which we have given on previous pages. If the word
"udaka" for water in Sanskrit is translated to the
Chinese "Shui" for water and the remaining "Pança-visa" is
transliterated into Chinese as "Ban cha zhuo" we get the
word "Ban cha zhuo shui" which is parallel to "Visodaka"
or poisonour water.
It is interesting to note that the ninth century
Chinese-Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary gives a Chinese word
"23
for "Visoda" (also poisonous water) as "Wei so dan'
which is the transliteration of the original word. We
have seen in the case of Navasara or Nao sha, that the
writers freely chose different characters for translitera-
tion, in different periods.
The physical and chemical properties of Visodaka
resemble those of Ban cha zhuo shui of the Chinese text,
as
can be seen below:
1.
Visodaka also displayed many colours.
Rasarṇava Shl. 213, Rasarnavakalpa shl. 730.
23 411 A
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