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The numerous methods for preparation of mercury', iron, copper,3 gold, silver,5 and other things, although they could not secure immortality or revive the dead, were meant to be helpful accessories in medicines. At first they came to be used cautiously and tentatively, mixed up with the medical recipes which were drawn chiefly from the vegetable kingdom but they soon began to assert a supremacy of their own so as even to supplant the old Indian Ayurvedic treatment by herbs and simples.? Nay even absurd pretensions were set up on behalf of these metallic preparations. Thus we come across som remarkable passages in the Jaina Ms. the Suvarna-Raupya-Siddhi Sāstra-"Amara Kāyā Kare"9 etc.
The one characteristic feature of the extant Jaina Ms. Suyarna RaupyaSiddhi-sāstra and others of the Intro chemical period is that opium (aphina).10 is recognised as official drug in their materia medica portion. This usefulness of opium may be found from the 12 th century A. D.11 up to the middle of the eighteenth century A. D., even up to the present day, as it is also mentioned as such in other Indian works12 on Rasāyana.
1. Saramo Kalo...hema 8 adrsyo bhavati, ñātra sandehah, Ibid., VI. 13 2. See Paradavidhi
“Pato himgoru korine mahe mehlse upari ahakanu dige... te pāro bamdhayo puviko thae. uttama nagavamga che I. mukhamadhye rakhie to bala ghano kare", Ibid.
ch. IX. 5 Ibid. Ch. I. 56, II. 1, III. 12. 13. 18x 22, 44. 3. Mala-ma. 1. jasta-mā 1, tamkana-ma-2. trambu-ma 4, Udhamusai gale dalam
jodhe / sāra, Lohapatra Kurkațavița madhye vā-14 u (dhaniūsa) bujhāve golamadhye 14 vāla-14, Navasara madhye loha nīpaje, patra madhye dije. Ibid. ch. IX. 11.
Kharu loha sr. ra. pai. 1 mumjälarasa sr. . vati and Kuladimai ghã (ti) bidi agni pra. I ni: 1 bhukhāla I mahaguņkārī chi II. Ibid, ch. x. '16 4. Ibid. II. 1. III. 66x 5. Ibid. ch. II. 2. 4. 5, 8. 14, III. 2. 3. 4. 7, 9. 19, 20, 33, 36, 37, 6. Ibid.,.ch. III, 14, 17, 18, 23, 30, 31, 32 34, 35, 39, 42, 46, 47, 106, etc. 7. Ibid., ch. IV. 4, 6; v. 20, etc; v. 44; Ix. 15. 16; Ix. 26 8. Ibid., ch. v. 32, 37, 38 IX. 5, 6, x. 14 9. Arsa aseu tya (ta) po 1 madhye turserjasapi Ksepanīyam I mahottamam dehāpusig
Ibid. ch, x. 24. 10. Ibid., ch. IX. 2. 11. Ibid., ch. III. 30–31 (aphīņa), ch. VI. 7 (aphiņa), y. 26, (aphiņa). 12. See Rasaratnasamuccaya of Nityanatha, etc.
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