Hi Patrick,
You may wish to look at Roy’s History of Hindu Chemistry on the topic of « killing » gold and other metals, in rasaśāstra. The verb used is jārayed, but śam caus. can also mean to kill.
Maybe there is more recent work on this as well.
On Thu, Oct 2, 2025 at 19:20, Patrick Olivelle via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote: Sorry, Johnston translates: “makes it too soft.”
Patrick
Dear All:
In Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda, we have the following verse:
dahet suvarṇaṁ hi dhamann akāle jale kṣipan saṁśamayed akāle /
na cāpi samyak paripākam enaṁ nayed akāle samupekṣamāṇaḥ // 16.66 //
The problem verb is saṃśamayet. Covill translates: "make it cool down”; and Johnston: “bring it to maturity.” My feeling is that the term has a technical meaning within the metallurgic tradition. Someone suggested “make it brittle”, which is tempting, but I do not know that the Sanskrit term has this meaning. Any help from those of you better versed in ancient Indian metallurgy would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Patrick Olivelle
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