14-12-03 03:26, S.Kalyanaraman wrote:
> In Samskr.tam, rasa_yana is the word for 'chemistry' and early rasa
> va_da meant 'transformation of base metals into gold'. Hence, the
> compound: soma-rasa.
The first and literal meaning of <rasa-> is 'sap, juice, liquid, fluid',
HENCE the compound <soma-rasa-> 'soma-juice'. <rasa:yana-> was the art
of using medicinal elixirs (mainly herbal ones) to strengthen the
"humours" or "quintessences" of the human body (to which the term
<rasa-> was also applied), and <rasava:da-> was the respective doctrine.
The interpretation of either as the transmutation of base metals into
gold, electrum or whatever seems to be a product of your own imagination.
Piotr