Girisindura

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Giri sindoor

What the texts say Girisindura does

• Rasayana — rejuvenative
• Kushthaghna — used in skin disease
• Krimighna — anthelmintic (against worms)
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour

What the evidence says. Traditional use is documented in the Rasashastra texts. Modern evidence about this dravya is largely toxicological rather than therapeutic.

Side effects and limits

This is a mercury compound. Mercuric oxide is substantially more soluble and more acutely toxic than mercuric sulphide, which is what Hingula is - so Girisindura is the more dangerous of the two and the texts treat it as a specialist article. Mercury poisoning from Ayurvedic preparations is documented by regulators outside India, including the CDC. Anyone pregnant, on medication or managing a diagnosed condition should speak to a doctor or a qualified practitioner first.

Avoid or ask first: Absolutely not used in the raw, unprocessed state.; Not used where there is kidney disease.; Not used at all outside specialist Rasashastra practice.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

A quantity for the processed article inside a compound preparation, prescribed by a practitioner trained in Rasashastra. Never the raw mineral.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Katu, tikta and kashaya with ushna virya and katu vipaka.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Girisindura is a natural mineral; Rasasindura is a prepared mercury-sulphur compound made in the laboratory. The names are close and the articles are not the same.

Red lead (sindura, lead tetroxide) is sold as Girisindura and the two names are close enough that the substitution is often not deliberate. That is a serious error: one is a mercury compound and the other is lead, and both are poisons of quite different kinds. A red powder sold under either name should be assayed and not assumed.

Given as a naturally occurring red mercury compound, usually read as mercuric oxide, HgO, and distinguished in the texts from Hingula, which is the sulphide. Some authorities read Girisindura as a prepared rather than a natural article.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Giri is a mountain and sindura is vermilion - the red earth of the hills. The same word sindura names red lead, which is precisely why the two get confused in the market.

Girisindura is listed among the sadharana rasa of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya and distinguished there from Hingula. That is what the tradition records.

Constituents. Given as a naturally occurring red mercury compound, usually read as mercuric oxide, HgO, and distinguished in the texts from Hingula, which is the sulphide. Some authorities read Girisindura as a prepared rather than a natural article.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE - Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• No mineral or metallic dravya is used raw. Every quantity recorded here refers to the processed article after shodhana and, where the texts require it, marana - never to the raw mineral.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.