Wujastyk, Dagmar (Author)
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity
Volume: 8, no. 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 15-40
Edition Details: Lead Article in a Series: Mercury in Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine
Language: English
This article gives an overview of the earliest uses of mercury in classical South Asian medicine up to the nineteenth century, tracing and discussing important stages in the development of mercury processing. The use of unprocessed mercury might date back to the period when the oldest Indian medical compendia, the Carakasa hitā and the Suśrutasa hitā, were composed. It is certain that medical compounds containing apparently unprocessed mercury were used by the time the works ascribed to Vāgbhaṭa, the Astangahrdayasa hita and the Astangasa graha, were written (c. early seventh century ce). However, with one notable exception, it was only from the thirteenth century onwards that ways of processing mercury were developed or adopted from alchemical sources in ayurvedic medicine. Elaborate procedures were applied for the `purifying' and calcining of mercury and for extracting mercury from cinnabar. Through these procedures, mercury was meant to be perfected, i.e. made safe for human consumption as well as efficacious as a remedy. By the sixteenth century, the use of processed mercury had become standard in ayurvedic medicine for a great number of diseases, and processed mercury was considered extremely potent and completely safe: a perfect medicine.
...MoreArticle Simioli, Carmen (2013) Alchemical Gold and the Pursuit of the Mercurial Elixir: An Analysis of Two Alchemical Treatises from the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 41-74).
Article Czaja, Olaf (2013) On the History of Refining Mercury in Tibetan Medicine. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 75-105).
Article Dolma, Sonam (2013) Understanding Ideas of Toxicity in Tibetan Medical Processing of Mercury. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 106-119).
Article Gerke, Barbara (2013) The Social Life of Tsotel: Processing Mercury in Contemporary Tibetan Medicine. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 120-152).
Article Banerjee, Madhulika (2013) Politics of Knowledge in the Debates on Toxicity in Ayurvedic Medicines: Recent Controversies over Bhasmas. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 153-179).
Article Schwabl, Herbert (2013) The Mercury Puzzle: Tibetan Medicines and the Pharmaceutical Regulations in the European Union--Assessments and Opportunities. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 181-198).
Article Aschoff, Jürgen C. (2013) A Physician's View on Legal Aspects of the Contemporary Medical Use of Mercury in Germany. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 199-210).
Article Prakash, Vaidya Balendu (2013) Growing up with Mercury in an Ayurvedic Family Tradition in Northern India. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 211-228).
Article Bhatt, Narendra (2013) Preparing Red and Black Mercury Sulphide in an Ayurvedic Setting. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity (pp. 229-238).
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