Lamp (dipana) process for mercury

The verse speaks of bright red lamps with layers dyed with lac (alaktaka); the commentary says the lamp vessels are first smeared with lac juice, the sulphur group and the poison group ground with breast milk. Mercury mixed with gold bhasma is placed in the vessel, tied in a fine cloth (a small bundle, in the verse), and the lamp is lit with karanja and sesame oil. The text says this smearing makes the mercury very bright and more powerful, excellent among rasas and pastes; the verse adds that the bound mercury, with greater piercing (vedhaka) power, transforms together with metals, and the commentary that siddha mercury brings about a change in every dhatu of the body.