Chamba
Charpatinath, also Charpatanath and Charpati, is one of the Navnath, and the place that keeps him is in the hills.
Chamba, Himachal Pradesh.
The Charpatnath temple stands in Chamba town, in the Ravi valley in the western Himalaya, and the local tradition places him at the founding of the town.
Chamba was established in the early tenth century by Sahil Varman, who moved the capital there and named it for his daughter Champavati, and the tradition connects Charpatinath with his court.
Which is the pattern this batch keeps meeting: a Nath siddha at the elbow of a ruler, in the accounts, with the relationship variously advisory, adversarial, and both.
The Nath presence in the hills
Substantial and old.
Himachal and the western Himalaya have Nath sites throughout, and the most striking is at Jwalamukhi, one of the Shakti Peethas, where natural gas flames burn from the rock and where there is a Gorakh Dibbi, a tank associated with Gorakhnath, which is part of the temple complex.
And the Nath and Shakta geographies overlap heavily in the hills, which is not surprising: both traditions ran on the same routes, used overlapping technical vocabulary, and were mostly outside the settled brahmanical order.
A note on a text often attributed to him
The Charpata Panjarika Stotra is usually not his.
That name is one of the titles under which the Bhaja Govindam circulates, the famous work attributed to Shankaracharya, also called the Moha Mudgara, the hammer for delusion.
It is the one that begins by telling you to worship Govinda, and then observes that the grammar you have spent your life on will not help you at the end.
And it is worth reading, and it is not a Nath text, and the attribution confusion is old and common.
What the Naths were actually doing besides yoga
And this is the subject of the rest of this entry.
They were alchemists.
The Nath tradition is one of the principal carriers of rasa shastra, the Indian science of processed metals and minerals, and the connection is not decorative: the same texts, the same lineages and in several cases the same names appear in the yogic literature and the alchemical literature.
Because the goal was the same.
Hatha yoga in the classical Nath texts is aimed at kaya siddhi, the perfected body: a body that does not decay, does not sicken, and does not die on the ordinary schedule.
And alchemy was aimed at exactly the same thing by a different route.
One works on the body from inside, through breath and posture and the internal locks.
The other works on it from outside, through preparations.
And the Naths did both, and did not regard them as different projects, and the literature moves between them without a seam.
Rasa Shastra: What It Was
And this app is going to give the tradition its due before giving the warning, because both are owed.
What rasa shastra is
The Indian science of processed metals and minerals, principally parada, mercury, and it developed from roughly the eighth century onward into an enormous technical literature.
The principal texts:
- Rasarnava, the ocean of mercury
- Rasa Ratnakara, attributed to Nagarjuna, a name that covers several figures
- Rasendra Chudamani
- Rasa Ratna Samuccaya, the standard later compendium
- Rasa Hridaya Tantra, and many more
What it actually contains
Laboratory procedure, in detail.
The texts describe apparatus: crucibles, furnaces of specified types, distillation devices, the damaru yantra and others, sublimation vessels, and the construction of each.
They describe processes: purification of a substance through repeated treatment, shodhana; incineration to an ash, marana; the eighteen operations on mercury, the samskaras, in a fixed sequence.
And they describe tests for whether a stage has been achieved correctly, and the tests are empirical: the appearance, the behaviour on heating, the response to other substances.
Which is chemistry.
What it achieved
Real metallurgical and chemical knowledge, and this is documented and not a matter of national pride.
The Indian tradition worked out distillation, sublimation, the calcination of metals, the preparation of a range of mineral acids and salts, methods of alloying, and the extraction of zinc, which was achieved at Zawar in Rajasthan on an industrial scale from around the twelfth century and which Europe did not manage until the eighteenth.
And the alchemical laboratory was where a good deal of it was worked out, in India as in China and in the Islamic world and in Europe, because alchemy is where systematic experimentation on substances happened before there was chemistry.
Why the Naths
Because of the goal.
Two things were being sought:
One. Transmutation. Turning base metal into gold, which is the goal everybody knows about and which is the smaller half.
Two. The body. Deha vada, the doctrine of the body, as against dhatu vada, the doctrine of metals.
And the Naths were on the body side.
The claim is that mercury, correctly processed, does to the human body what it does to base metal: it fixes it. A body treated with the perfected preparation becomes as stable as gold, and gold does not tarnish.
And that is the same goal as the hatha yoga, which is why the two run together in the same lineages.
How to hold the historical achievement
Straightforwardly.
It was serious work by serious people who were experimenting systematically, keeping records, developing apparatus and testing outcomes, over centuries, and it produced real knowledge that fed into Indian metallurgy and medicine.
And its central theory was wrong, in the specific sense that mercury does not confer immortality and base metals do not become gold, which is also true of European alchemy and of Chinese alchemy and does not diminish what any of them worked out along the way.
And now the part that matters today.
The Warning, and It Is a Real One
Metal based preparations from this tradition are still made, still sold and still taken, and some of them will poison you.
What is being talked about
Bhasmas and rasa aushadhis: preparations in which a metal or mineral has been processed, usually incinerated repeatedly, and which are used in Ayurvedic practice.
The substances include: mercury, lead, arsenic, copper, iron, zinc, gold and silver.
The first three are the problem.
What the evidence says
Heavy metal poisoning from Ayurvedic preparations is documented in the peer reviewed medical literature, from India and from countries with Indian diaspora populations, and it is not a rare finding in the studies that have looked.
Analyses of products bought on the open market have repeatedly found lead, mercury and arsenic at levels far above any safe intake, in a substantial proportion of the metal containing preparations tested.
And the cases that reach hospitals are real: lead encephalopathy, severe anaemia, kidney damage, neurological injury in adults and developmental harm in children.
Why this happens
Not because the classical tradition was careless.
The classical texts are obsessive about preparation. The eighteen samskaras of mercury exist precisely because the tradition understood that unprocessed mercury is a poison, and the entire elaborate procedure is aimed at rendering it safe, and the texts say so explicitly and repeatedly.
What has happened is that the procedure is expensive, slow and skilled, and the market is not.
Preparations made without the full processing, or made from contaminated raw material, or made by people who do not know what they are doing, are indistinguishable to a buyer from properly made ones, and they are sold in the same shops.
What to actually do
One. Do not self prescribe metal preparations.
If a product contains a bhasma, a rasa, sindoora, or names a metal, do not take it on your own judgement or on a shopkeeper's.
Two. If you use Ayurveda, use a qualified registered practitioner.
BAMS qualified, registered with the state board, prescribing a specific preparation for a specific reason, from a manufacturer with an AYUSH licence, for a defined period.
Three. Do not buy these online or from itinerant sellers.
Unlicensed and imported products are the highest risk category and there is no way for a buyer to assess them.
Four. Never for children, and not in pregnancy.
Children absorb lead far more efficiently than adults and the damage is to the developing brain and is not reversible. There is no version of this that is worth the risk in a child.
Five. Know the symptoms.
Lead poisoning: abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, anaemia, irritability, headache, difficulty concentrating, and in children developmental delay and behavioural change.
Mercury: tremor, numbness or tingling, memory problems, mood change, kidney problems.
Arsenic: skin changes including pigmentation and thickening of the palms and soles, gastrointestinal symptoms, neuropathy.
And all three are slow and cumulative, so the connection to a medicine taken for months is easy to miss.
Six. If you suspect it, tell a doctor and tell them what you took.
Blood lead and mercury levels can be measured, treatment exists, and the single most useful thing you can do is bring the actual container with you.
And the honest framing of all this
This is not an argument against Ayurveda.
Ayurveda is a large medical tradition with a great deal in it, most of which is herbal, dietary and regimen based, and a great deal of which is sensible and some of which is being studied properly.
This is an argument about one category of preparation within it, the metal based ones, which carry a specific and documented risk that the herbal material does not, and about which the traditional literature is itself more cautious than the modern market.
And the connection to this entry is that the Naths are where a great deal of that material comes from, that they were pursuing an immortal body, and that the pursuit of an immortal body by chemical means has a very long history of killing people, in India, in China where several emperors died of mercury preparations, and everywhere else it was tried.
Which is the same warning this series gave in the Vallalar entry, from the other direction, and it is worth having in both forms.
The Short Version
Who: Charpatinath, also Charpatanath and Charpati, one of the Navnath, kept principally at Chamba in Himachal Pradesh, where the Charpatnath temple stands in the town in the Ravi valley. Chamba was established in the early tenth century by Sahil Varman, who named it for his daughter Champavati, and local tradition connects Charpatinath with his court, which is the pattern this batch keeps meeting: a Nath siddha at the elbow of a ruler.
A note on attribution: the Charpata Panjarika Stotra is usually not his. That name is one of the titles under which the Bhaja Govindam circulates, the work attributed to Shankaracharya and also called the Moha Mudgara, the hammer for delusion. It is worth reading and it is not a Nath text.
What the Naths did besides yoga: they were alchemists, and the Nath tradition is one of the principal carriers of rasa shastra, the Indian science of processed metals and minerals. The connection is not decorative, since the same texts, lineages and in several cases names appear in both literatures, because the goal was the same. Hatha yoga in the classical Nath texts aims at kaya siddhi, a body that does not decay, sicken or die on the ordinary schedule, and alchemy aimed at the same thing by a different route: one works on the body from inside through breath and posture, the other from outside through preparations.
Rasa shastra: developed from roughly the eighth century into an enormous technical literature, including the Rasarnava, the Rasa Ratnakara, the Rasendra Chudamani and the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya. It contains laboratory procedure in detail: apparatus, crucibles, furnaces, distillation devices; processes including shodhana or purification and marana or incineration, and the eighteen samskaras of mercury in fixed sequence; and empirical tests for whether a stage has been achieved. The tradition worked out distillation, sublimation, calcination, mineral acids and salts, alloying, and the extraction of zinc, achieved industrially at Zawar in Rajasthan from around the twelfth century, which Europe did not manage until the eighteenth. Its central theory was wrong, in the sense that mercury does not confer immortality and base metals do not become gold, which is equally true of European and Chinese alchemy and does not diminish what any of them worked out.
The warning: metal based preparations from this tradition are still made, sold and taken, and some will poison you. Heavy metal poisoning from Ayurvedic preparations is documented in the peer reviewed literature, and analyses of open market products have repeatedly found lead, mercury and arsenic far above any safe intake. This is not because the classical tradition was careless: the eighteen samskaras exist precisely because it understood unprocessed mercury is a poison. It is because the procedure is expensive, slow and skilled, and the market is not, and badly made products are indistinguishable to a buyer. So: do not self prescribe metal preparations; if you use Ayurveda use a BAMS qualified registered practitioner and an AYUSH licensed manufacturer; do not buy these online or from itinerant sellers; never for children and not in pregnancy, since children absorb lead far more efficiently and the damage is to the developing brain and is not reversible; know the symptoms, which are slow and cumulative; and if you suspect it, tell a doctor and bring the container, since blood levels can be measured and treatment exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Charpatinath?+
One of the Navnath, the nine masters of the Nath tradition, also called Charpatanath and Charpati. He is kept principally at Chamba in Himachal Pradesh, where the Charpatnath temple stands in the town in the Ravi valley, and local tradition connects him with the court of Sahil Varman, who established Chamba in the early tenth century and named it for his daughter Champavati. He is also associated with the alchemical side of the Nath tradition, rasa shastra, the Indian science of processed metals and minerals.
What is rasa shastra?+
The Indian science of processed metals and minerals, principally parada or mercury, which developed from roughly the eighth century into an enormous technical literature including the Rasarnava, the Rasa Ratnakara attributed to Nagarjuna, the Rasendra Chudamani and the Rasa Ratna Samuccaya. It contains laboratory procedure in detail: apparatus including crucibles, furnaces, distillation devices and sublimation vessels; processes including shodhana or purification through repeated treatment, marana or incineration to an ash, and the eighteen samskaras of mercury in fixed sequence; and empirical tests for whether a stage has been achieved correctly. The tradition worked out distillation, sublimation, calcination of metals, mineral acids and salts, alloying, and the extraction of zinc, which was achieved industrially at Zawar in Rajasthan from around the twelfth century and which Europe did not manage until the eighteenth.
Why were the Naths interested in alchemy?+
Because the goal was the same as their yoga. Two things were being sought in the alchemical tradition: transmutation, turning base metal into gold, which everybody knows about and which is the smaller half; and deha vada, the doctrine of the body, as against dhatu vada, the doctrine of metals. The Naths were on the body side. The claim is that mercury, correctly processed, does to the human body what it does to base metal, fixing it, so that a body treated with the perfected preparation becomes as stable as gold, and gold does not tarnish. Hatha yoga in the classical Nath texts aims at kaya siddhi, a body that does not decay, sicken or die on the ordinary schedule, so one works on the body from inside through breath and posture and the internal locks, and the other from outside through preparations. The Naths did both and did not regard them as different projects.
Are Ayurvedic bhasmas safe?+
Metal based preparations carry a specific and documented risk that herbal material does not. Heavy metal poisoning from Ayurvedic preparations is documented in the peer reviewed medical literature, from India and from countries with Indian diaspora populations, and analyses of products bought on the open market have repeatedly found lead, mercury and arsenic at levels far above any safe intake in a substantial proportion of the metal containing preparations tested. The cases that reach hospitals are real: lead encephalopathy, severe anaemia, kidney damage, neurological injury in adults and developmental harm in children. This is not because the classical tradition was careless, since the eighteen samskaras of mercury exist precisely because the tradition understood that unprocessed mercury is a poison and the whole elaborate procedure is aimed at rendering it safe. It is because the procedure is expensive, slow and skilled and the market is not, and badly made preparations are indistinguishable to a buyer from properly made ones and are sold in the same shops.
What should I do if I take Ayurvedic metal preparations?+
Do not self prescribe them: if a product contains a bhasma, a rasa, sindoora or names a metal, do not take it on your own judgement or a shopkeeper's. If you use Ayurveda, use a BAMS qualified practitioner registered with the state board, prescribing a specific preparation for a specific reason, from a manufacturer with an AYUSH licence, for a defined period. Do not buy these online or from itinerant sellers, since unlicensed and imported products are the highest risk category and a buyer has no way to assess them. Never give them to children and do not take them in pregnancy, since children absorb lead far more efficiently than adults and the damage is to the developing brain and is not reversible. Know the symptoms, which are slow and cumulative so the connection to a medicine taken for months is easy to miss: lead causes abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, anaemia, irritability, headache and difficulty concentrating, with developmental delay in children; mercury causes tremor, numbness, memory problems and kidney problems; arsenic causes skin pigmentation and thickening of palms and soles, gastrointestinal symptoms and neuropathy. If you suspect it, tell a doctor and bring the actual container, since blood lead and mercury levels can be measured and treatment exists.
Is the Charpata Panjarika Stotra by Charpatinath?+
Usually not. That name is one of the titles under which the Bhaja Govindam circulates, the famous work attributed to Shankaracharya, also called the Moha Mudgara, the hammer for delusion. It is the one that begins by telling you to worship Govinda and then observes that the grammar you have spent your life on will not help you at the end. It is worth reading, it is not a Nath text, and the attribution confusion is old and common.
About the author
Pandit Ravindra Sharma · Vedic Rituals & Bhakti, 22+ years
Pandit Ravindra is the Vandnaa editorial team's resident specialist on aarti, chalisa, and daily devotion. He has performed home and temple pujas across Varanasi and Delhi for over two decades and contributes the bhakti-focused articles on this site.
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