Witnessed by: Ayurveda
Diamond, of the native element (carbon) family. Hard, brilliant, adamantine octahedral crystals, colourless to tinted; native range: carried up from the deep mantle in kimberlite pipes and won from their weathered soils and river gravels — classically the Golconda gravels of the Krishna, the only source the ancient world knew. Globally recognized as vajra, hiraka in Sanskrit, heera in Hindi, and diamond in English. The part used is the purified stone, incinerated to bhasma. Colourless and water-clear, or tinted; an adamantine fire no other stone shows, scratching every other substance and scratched by none; cold and slippery to the touch, and remarkably conductive of heat.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
DIAMOND
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- diamond
- Scientific name
- Diamond (native carbon, C)
- Family
- native element (carbon)
Form
- Part used
- the purified stone, incinerated to bhasma
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sweet (madhura)
Temperature
- Ayurveda
- cooling (sheeta)
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- rasayana and ayushya (grants long life), balya (strengthening), vrishya (aphrodisiac), vishaghna (antidote to poison), tridoshahara, ojovardhaka
Cautions
- Contraindications
- the unincinerated stone is never given internally — the classical texts hold the improperly prepared diamond to be a poison that kills; pregnancy and childhood
- Toxicity
- carbon in its own right is inert, but an incompletely incinerated bhasma leaves hard, sharp, insoluble particles, and the texts describe grave consequences from an improperly made vajra bhasma. Safety rests entirely on the completeness of the marana.
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