[INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I don't think vidhyate means "is penetrated."  I think it means
"transmuted."  Or even "multiplied."  Actually, I'm not really sure what it
means.  But "vedhana" isn't simply "piercing" in rasaśāstra literature.  It
seems to correspond to what the classical (Greek and Latin) authors mean
when they talk about transmutation and multiplication (increase) of
substances.  In your text, vidhyate is used synonymically (?) with
abhini+viś.  Infused?  Permeated?  I'm really not sure what the alchemical
simile is, so I would be urge caution with the application of a chemical
metaphor to the philosophical case.  Maybe you could work backwards, if you
know pretty much what Abhinavagupta is saying philosophically, we could
deduce what he thought the chemical processes were.  I think transmutation
or transformation might work.

About jīrṇa, I think it's the same as one of the 16 rasa-saṃskāras, jāraṇa
a form of chemical digestion (perhaps, in modern terminology, oxidation).
I'll leave it to others to say more.
Best,
Dominik





On 7 July 2014 02:03, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear respected colleagues,
>
> I wonder if anyone here knows about alchemy (rasāyana) and can clarify the
> meaning of the word *jīrṇa *in that context. In the passage below (ĪPvv
> III p. 328), in discussing mystical experience, Abhinavagupta uses an
> alchemical metaphor involving *siddharasa *(≈ mercury)*, drutarasa, *and
> *kanakadhātu*. The meaning of the passage is fairly clear to me, I am
> just wondering about the alchemical significance of of *jīrṇa *(matured?) and
> *drutarasa*.
>
> the passage follows.
>
> *yadā tu parāmṛṣṭa-nityatva-vyāpitvādi-dharmakaiśvarya-ghanātmanā
> ahambhāva-siddharasena śūnyādi-deha-dhātv-antaṃ vidhyate yena prameyatvāt
> tat cyavata iva, tadā turyadaśā*;
> *yadāpi viddho 'sau prāṇa-dehādi-dhātuḥ saṃvid-rasena abhiniviṣṭo ’tyantaṃ
> kanaka-dhātur iva jīrṇaḥ kriyate yena sa druta-rasa iva ābhāti kevalaṃ
> tat-saṃskāraḥ, tadāpi turyātīta-daśā sā bhavati*
> 'But when the [layers of limited selfhood] from Void to the physical body
> are penetrated by the “alchemical elixir” that is the (true)
> I-sense—replete with the sovereignty of the qualities of eternality,
> all-pervasiveness, etc. which are cognized [as aspects of that I], by which
> their objectivity falls away as it were, then it is the Fourth State.
> When, further, these elements of *prā**ṇa*, body, etc., penetrated by the
> elixir of Consciousness, are completely immersed [in it], they are
> “matured” like the element of gold . . .'(?)
>
>
> best wishes,
>
> Christopher Wallis, M.A. (Cal), M.Phil. (Oxon), Ph.D. (ABD, Cal)
>
>
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