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JULY, 1987
Toward the end of the eighteenth century A.D. the Jaina alchemists began to make use of initial letters of the names of elements and compounds, instead of the older symbolic names, e.g. 'ha' iti=hāṭakam (gold)11, ra iti rasa pāro (mercury), 'kha' iti kharpura (mineral calmine), 'ma' iti=manahsala-manahsilā (realgar) 'ta' iti=tamkana (borax), 'ha' iti-haratāla (orpiment)15.
A parallel development of alchemy was going on in the western world (Greek-Arab countries) during the Middle Ages. It is stated that "In a manuscript written in Greek in the tenth or eleventh century and now kept in St. Mark's library in Venice, the work of an Egyptian alchemist (the early chemists were called algamista or alchemists), perhaps of the second century A.D. is described. In this manuscript seven metals are identified with celestial bodies-gold with the Sun, silver with the Moon, lead with the Saturn, iron with the Mars, copper with the Venus, tin with the Mercury, and electron (an alloy of gold and silver) with the Jupiter. These bodies were used for the corresponding metals. Other symbols were also used, the symbol for iron was a complex symbol containing the symbol for iron.
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The second century's alchemist whose work is described in St. Mark's manuscript was endeavouring to make gold. The endeavour to make gold was continued by alchemists throughout the Middle Ages together with studies dealing with industrial processes, especially metallurgical process and with the manufacture of drugs. In the course of the early work of alchemists, many chemical discoveries were made.
During the Middle Ages an extensive system, in part secret, of symbols for chemical substances was developed. Toward the end of the eighteenth century Chemists began to make use of initial letters of the names of elements and compounds, instead of the older symbols. Berzeliers then systematized this procedure and his scheme was soon adopted by all chemists."16
The prominent features of the Suvarna-Raupya-Siddhi Sastra on alchemy lay in the search after the elixir vitae and the powder of projec
14 SRSS, ch. II, 7; ch. III. 1. 15 Ibid.
16 General Chemistry, Pauling, p. 82.
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