Naga

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Seesa

What the texts say Naga does

• Pramehahara — used in prameha (a group of urinary disorders, including madhumeha)
• Vrishya — aphrodisiac, supports reproductive vigour
• Balya — strengthening
• Rasayana — rejuvenative

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 lead. Lead has no established safe level of exposure and is particularly damaging to the developing brain. Lead poisoning traced to Ayurvedic preparations is documented by the CDC and by health departments in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and Naga bhasma is among the preparations named in those reports. The classical texts prescribe it after an elaborate shodhana and marana; the shodhana does not remove the lead, and no preparation makes lead not be lead. This entry records what the texts prescribe. It is not a recommendation that anyone take it. 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 in children.; Not used where there is kidney disease.; and more below.

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 metal.

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.

Madhura and tikta 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.

Naga also names the elephant and the serpent, and in other contexts names Nagakeshara and Nagavalli - one of the more overloaded names in the whole materia medica.

Scrap lead from batteries, cable sheathing and solder is what most of the market supplies, and it carries antimony, arsenic and cadmium from those uses. The classical method assumes lead ore or refined lead, not reclaimed industrial metal.

Metallic lead, Pb. A soft, heavy, dull grey metal with a very low melting point.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Naga means serpent, for a metal that is soft enough to coil and that was cast into serpent forms. Plumbum, which gives lead the symbol Pb, gives English its plumber - the trade that worked in lead pipes, and the trade that poisoned Rome's water.

Naga is among the shuddha loha of the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya and is one of the three metals of Trivanga. That is what the tradition records and where.

Constituents. Metallic lead, Pb. A soft, heavy, dull grey metal with a very low melting point.

• 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.