[This reproduces a post by me to the INDOLOGY list, earlier today]
I am trying to firm up the idea that vedh- means convert, transmute, or (for the philosophers among us, perhaps) transubstantiate.
The Rasaratnasamuccaya
is a kind of late-ish nibandha text that brings together, organizes and
medicalizes the earlier, more tantric alchemical literature.
Meulenbeld argues that it is datable to the sixteenth century (HIML IIA
670). Earliest dated MS: 1699 CE. This text is not bad as a
representative of the developed ("classical"?) rasaśāstra tradition; one
would expect less standardization of vocab. in earlier texts.
At Rasaratnasamuccaya 8.94-95 there is a definition of śabdavedha.
At Rasaratnasamuccaya 8.94-95 there is a definition of śabdavedha.
from
blowing of iron, with mercury in the mouth, there is the creation of
goldenness and silverness. That is known as Word-vedha.
and the commentator makes it even more explicity that this is transmutation, using pari-ṇam. Rasaratnasamuccayabodhinī on 8.95:
... tat lauhakhaṇḍaṃ svarṇādirūpeṇa
pariṇatam//
that bit of iron is converted into the form of gold etc.
that bit of iron is converted into the form of gold etc.
... yatra vedhe svarṇādirūpeṇa pariṇamet sa śabdavedha ityarthaḥ//
Word-vedha is where it converts with the form of gold etc. ...
The
operation being described here is not unclear. The alchemist puts a
piece of mercury in his mouth and blows on a piece of iron. It becomes
golden or silvery. This "becoming" is "vedha."