Ancient Indian Chemistry (Rasayana)

The texts like Dravya-guna-darpana (mirror of the property of organic and inorganic things) refers to the knowlege and practice of the sience of chemistry which developed, as in other countries, mostly in connexion with the medical treatment although there are topics which are non-medical in substance. The Rasayana-sistra, literally the science dealing with the preparation of and effects of quicksilver (rasa) is a symbolic work on the preparation of drugs in general. The extant works, however, deals with elixirs to give perpetual youth, life for a thousand years, invisibility, invulnerability and other good things. The Rasaratnakara of Nagarjuna is assigned to the 7 th or 8 th century, the Rasarnava to about 1200 which refers to the Rasahridaya and the Rasesvara-siddhanta, the Rasaratnasamgraha of Vagbhatta or Asvinikumara or Nityanatha to 1300. There are Rasaratnakara of Nityanitha and a Rasendra Chintamani of Ramachandra, and a commentary on Rasadhyaya by Merutunga. George Arthur in his 'Natural organic colouring matters' has mentioned that the Indian knew how to make lasting colouring of thread in blue and in red. Gold and steel are mentioned in the Vedas. The Chhandogya Upanishad refers to gold, silver, iron, tin and lead. In addition to these Kautilya mentions in hiArthasastra mercury (pirada). The Rasirnava explains the modern methods of making metallic things. The manufacture of fine steel is shown by the use of the finest surgical instruments. Bagbhatta and Chakrapanidatta have specified the method of making caustic alkali (ugra kshara). In his Rasaratnakara Nagarjuna is credited with the discovery of the distillation (patana) and calcination (jarana). In the Rasaratnakara (12 th century) processes are explained for making mercury (parada), copper pyrites (makshika), copper (tamra), and calamine (rasaka), etc. A little later text, Ratnasamuchchaya, supplies further knowledge of the chemical science in ancient India'. The famous historian 1 There are numerous later texts on chemistry dealing with the various brances, v. Rasaratna Sam achchaya, Rasendra sara. samgraha, Rasendra chudamani, hasaprakasa sudhakara, Rasendra kalpadruma, Rasamangala, Rasamrita, Rasasara, Rasa-manjuri, Rasa. 33

Pliny has noted that the Indians knew from the 3 rd century B. C. the process of making glass. Thus were made spherical (vritta) and oval (vartula) lenses out of glass. The Ratnasastra deals with the examination of gems. Varahamihira (5 th century) discusses this subject in detail. There are other texts of unknown dates which include the Agastyamala, the Ratna-pariksha of Buddha Bhatta and the Navaratna-pariksha of Narayana Pandita.