Prolonged heating of a metallic compound or mineral for several hours or days or weeks to make it more refined and medically potent is known as putapaka in Hinduism. The end product of the process is bhasma, an extremely fine powder. This extremely light bhasma, when thrown on water, spreads itself as a thin film on it. This fine powder is supposed to possess physical and chemical properties that make it beneficial to bodily tissues through what is called its bio-availability. The Process After a particular metal or mineral is processed elaborately with chosen herbs, sulphur, selected minerals, lime juice and other extracts, the resulting substance is subjected to prolonged heating. The source of heat is generally cow dung cake and depending upon the number of cow-dung cake used, as well as the way in which they are heated in a particular manner, the desired degrees of heat are sought to be given to the substance. The substance itself is placed in an earthen conta