[INDOLOGY] poison

[Jan E.M. Houben]

Dear Jonathan,
The use of vi.sa for positive purposes is rare in Indian medicine (no trace
as far as I know of the basic principle of homeopathy: similia similibus
curantur).
Nevertheless, it is also an ingredient in one of the recipes of
an Indrarasaayana according to Caraka.
And a Rgvedic, longhaired muni apparently used  some kind of vi.sa to
"fly"...
As for the production of vi.sa, it will depend whether it is plant based or
mineral based.
For "faults" in mercury which give it a  vi.sa character according to
Rasa;saastra see Oliver Hellwig's Wörterbuch der Mittelalterlichen
indischen Alchemie and my review of it in IIJ a few years back.
See also Meulenbeld's 5-volume History of Indian Medical Literature through
the index of Sanskrit and Tibetan words in volume III.
Best,
Jan



On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 19:42, Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Friends
> My friend Charles Ramble is working on a Tibetan text on poison. It
> mentions for instance 32 types. I am aware that (no doubt among others)
> *Suśrutasaṁhitā* in its Kalpasthāna has much to say about poison, but
> understandably, not how to make it. There seems to exist a term
> *viṣaśāstra*, but more I have not been able to discover. I feel I may
> have overlooked something rather well known.
> I would be delighted both to learn more myself (no, I'm not looking to
> poison anyone!) and to pass along the information to Charles.
>
> Very best,
> Jonathan
>
> --
> J. Silk
> Leiden University
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
> Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
> 2311 BZ Leiden
> The Netherlands
>
> copies of my publications may be found at
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
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-- 

*Jan E.M. Houben*

Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology

*Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite*

École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)

*Sciences historiques et philologiques *

*johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu <johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>*

*https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
<https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*


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