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Chemistry in Rasarnava (1000 AD to 1300 AD); from Acharya Prafulla Ray’s A History of Hindu Chemistry.

The Tantric Period
(From 1000 A. D. to circa 1300 A.D.)

[In Rasarnava, as in all other Tantras, knowledge is imparted in the shape of a dialogue between Bhairava (Siva) and his consort Parvati.]

EXTRACTS FROM BOOK IV ON APPARATUS AND THE COLOUR OF FLAMES

Sri Bhairava said:

"The rasas, the uparasas, the metals, a piece of cloth, vidam, a pair of bellows, iron implements, stone pestles and mortars, the apparatus known as Koshti, mouth blow pipe * * cow-dung, substantial wood (as fuel), various kinds of earthen apparatus (e.g. crucibles & etc.), a pair of tongs and earthen and iron vessels, weights and balances, bamboo and iron, pipes, the fats, the acids, the salts and the alkalies, the poisons all those are to be collected and chemical operations begun".