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)
40 (of 48)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
170
Needham conjectures that the word "totamu" might
have its origin in the Persian word tutiya for calamine.
Here we give a more probable etymology for the
word "tutenag" (also written by the seventeenth century
Chinese author as "totamu").
"Tutenag" probably is the twisted form of the
original word "tutthanag" for zinc in south Indian
languages, e.g., Tamil.
"Tutthanag" is formed with the combination of
two words "tuttha" and "nag". "Tutthanag" thereby means
it is a kind of lead (nag) derived from tuttha or calamine
(zinc carbonate).
40 Earlier Sanskrit literature gives the meaning
of "tuttha" as copper or ferrous sulphate. But in the
later alchemical texts, viz. Rasendras膩rasamgraha we find
Tuttha is given as a synonym of Rasaka or kharpara, i.e.,
calamine. Further, to distinguish other kinds of
Tutthas, the terms such as "Mayur greeva Tuttha" (meaning
tuttha of the colour of peacock's neck) for copper
sulphate and "Hara-Tuttha" (meaning green tuttha) for
ferrous sulphate were used. The Sanskrit word "Tuttha"
40 See 脟araka-sa峁僪ita in Primary Sources, p. 79.
