[INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor

Wed Jul 9 22:47:53 UTC 2014

I don't know (without digging about, and I have no time just now).  But if
David says so, it's probably right.  He normally gives his sources.  What I
would say, though, is that the 16 saṃskāras are definitely the norm in the
classical picture, so a seventeenth saṃskāra is a bit like the seventh
cakra or the fifth veda, a late structural extension of a standard theory.
(Like Einstein to Newton and Schroedinger to Einstein :-)
D

On 10 July 2014 00:23, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Having looked at White's book The Alchemical Body, I can report that he
> frequently takes *vedha *in the sense of "transmute" and
> "transubstantiate". Of course, he is not a Sanskritist but an historian of
> religion.  Dominik, is it true that vedha is often listed as the
> seventeenth samskāra after the 16 rasa-saṃskāras, and is seen as their
> fruit?  For such he claims in that book.
>
> best, CW
>
>
>
>
> On 9 July 2014 12:09, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> This is a rather wonderful discussion!  Thanks to all for adding
>> evidence. The video Dominik posted seems very important insofar as our
>> authors were in touch with reality, which I like to think they were. Taking
>> account as best I can of what everyone has said, and the physical evidence,
>> here is my new translation of the passage. Comments most welcome.
>>
>> *yadā tu parāmṛṣṭa-nityatva-vyāpitvādi-dharmakaiśvarya-ghanātmanā
>> ahambhāva-siddharasena śūnyādi-deha-dhātv-antaṃ vidhyate yena prameyatvāt
>> tat cyavata iva, tadā turyadaśā*;
>> But when [all the layers of limited selfhood] from the Void to the
>> tissues of the body are penetrated by the “alchemical elixir” that is
>> the [true] I-sense—replete with the sovereignty in which the qualities of
>> eternality, all-pervasiveness, etc. are cognized [as aspects of that
>> “I”]—through which [penetration-cum-transmutation] their objectivity falls
>> away as it were, then that is [called] the Fourth State.
>> *yadāpi viddho 'sau prāṇadehādi-dhātuḥ saṃvid-rasena abhiniviṣṭo ’tyantaṃ
>> kanaka-dhātur iva jīrṇaḥ kriyate yena sa druta-rasa iva ābhāti kevalaṃ
>> tat-saṃskāraḥ, tadāpi turyātīta-daśā sā bhavati*
>> When, further, these elements of *prā**ṇa*, body, etc., penetrated by
>> the elixir of Consciousness, are thoroughly permeated [by it], they are
>> [then] “digested” like the element of gold [is by mercury], by which the
>> “liquified essence” [of consciousness], their purifier, alone appears –
>> then too it becomes the state Beyond the Fourth.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9 July 2014 05:36, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Trying to firm up the idea that vedh- means convert, transmute, or (for
>>> the philosophers among us, perhaps) transubstantiate.
>>>
>>> The *Rasaratnasamuccaya* is a kind of late-ish nibandha text that
>>> brings together, organizes and medicalizes the earlier, more tantric
>>> alchemical literature.  Meulenbeld argues that it is datable to the
>>> sixteenth century (HIML IIA 670).  Earliest dated MS: 1699 CE.  This text
>>> is not bad as a representative of the developed ("classical"?) rasaśāstra
>>> tradition; one would expect less standardization of vocab. in earlier
>>> texts.
>>>
>>> At *Rasaratnasamuccaya* 8.94-95
>>> <http://sarit.indology.info/newphilo/getobject.pl?c.7:8:165.indologica>
>>> there is a definition of śabdavedha.
>>> from blowing of iron, with mercury in the mouth, there is the creation
>>> of goldenness and silverness. That is known as Word-vedha.
>>> and the commentator makes it even more explicity that this is
>>> transmutation, using pari-ṇam.  *Rasaratnasamuccayabodhinī* on 8.95
>>> <http://sarit.indology.info/newphilo/getobject.pl?c.7:8:166.indologica>:
>>> ... *tat lauhakhaṇḍaṃ svarṇādirūpeṇa pariṇatam//*
>>> that bit of iron is converted into the form of gold etc.
>>>
>>> ... yatra vedhe svarṇādirūpeṇa pariṇamet sa śabdavedha ityarthaḥ//
>>> Word-vedha is where it converts with the form of gold etc. ...
>>>
>>> The operation being described here is not unclear.  The alchemist puts a
>>> piece of mercury in his mouth and blows on a piece of iron.  It becomes
>>> golden or silvery.  This "becoming" is "vedha."
>>>
>>> The *Bodhinī* authors were Āśubodha and Nityabodha (hence the witty
>>> title), the sons of Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara Bhaṭṭacārya, and the *Bodhinī*
>>> was published in Calcutta in 1927.  So it's arguable that their
>>> interpretation was influenced by 19th-20th century thought.  However, their
>>> commentary is very śāstric and elaborate (note the Pāṇinian grammatical
>>> parsing, "dhama dhāvane ityasmāt lyuḥ" (>P.1.3.134 and pacādi ākṛtigaṇa).
>>> And as Meulenbeld points out, they cite an exceptionally wide range of
>>> earlier rasaśāstra texts (HIML IIA 671-2).  Their interpretations are based
>>> on a close reading of classical rasaśāstra literature.  At the very least,
>>> one can say that their view represents the understanding of learned
>>> panditas in turn of the century Calcutta, that vedha meant pariṇāma, or
>>> transmutation.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Dominik
>>>
>>>
>>> Dominik
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 9 July 2014 12:27, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 9 July 2014 11:26, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei at uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I have a vague recollection, by the way, of discussing this with David
>>>>> Pingree back in the 80s, and he pointed me to an old, but interesting
>>>>> monograph on Indian chemistry (not alchemy) that had some interesting
>>>>> things to say about vedh-. I’ll try to locate the reference, but no doubt
>>>>> others on this list will be more familiar with the literature in this area.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I imagine David was thinking of P. C. Ray's *History of Hindu
>>>> Chemistry * (link
>>>> <https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3iamb3e84kp2o2k/AADzPHJXs8rxHNgRsINzLVH9a>)
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Dominik
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>

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