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It appears that the entire series of the Jaina treaties on alchemy, is a composition and epitome based upon some standard works on the subjects--chemistry, metallurgy, medicine and occultism and the contribution of the adepts.42
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It is interesting to note that the author of the Suvarna-Raupya-SiddhiSastra declared his indebtedness to the previous Acaryas like Nagarjuna, 48 Padalipta Suri,44 Carpata,45 Natha,46 Sekham Ali47 and others48 for a knowledge of certain processes of alchemy as is found in the case of other Indian works 49 on alchemy. This seems to indicate that the cultivation of alchemy and chemical knowledge among the Jainacaryas became neglected at a certain period of Indian history of alchemy and almost forgotten and the earnest interest into the lore of alchemy has to be made during the time of the Jaina alchemists of the Iatro-chemical period as was the case with the authors of other Indian works on Rasayanavidya.
The peculiarity of the alchemical works 50 of the Iatro-chemical period is this that they are based upon the Indian Ayurvedic texts 51 on the one hand and the Indian Tantric Chemical Treatises 52 on the other. It appears from a study of the contents of the Jaina MS. the Suvarna-RaupyaSiddhi-Sastra and other Jaina works on alchemy in comparison with
42 There are some references to the inclusion of some additional materials of the later period in the SRSS and other Jaina alchemical works, e.g. Vaidyakasamgraha (about phiringiroga, phiringivaya cikitsa, etc.), besides, the mention of chemical formulas of Nagarjuna, Carpata, Padlipta Suri, Sekham Ali, etc. in the 1st and 2nd chapters of the SRSS. See also Rasaratna Samuccaya of Manikyadevasuri.
48 nagarjuna kahe dhamdha thoda, SRSS, ch., 1.60.
44 palittaya-mai mahil, Ibid., ch. II. 4.
45 carapata kare tamasa, Ibid., ch. I. 8, 14, 17, 26, 39.
46 natha bole, Ibid., ch. I. 19.
47 Sekham Ali, Ibid., Ch. I. 60 (MS-B).
48 Gandu bole, Ibid., ch. I. 11.
49 See Rasaratnakara of Nityanatha, Rasaratna Samuccaya of Vagbhat, etc.
60 SRSS, of Jinadattasuri; Rasaratna Samuccaya of Manikyadeva Suri; Nagarjunividya, Paradavidhi, etc.
61 See Carakasamhita, Susrutasamhita, Kalyanakaraka with regard to Rasaprakarana, etc.
52 See Rasaratnakara, etc. In almost every country the progress of Chemistry can be traced back to medicine and a belief in the making of gold by a chemical process of the transformation of base metals into gold as well as to the elexir vitae of life or the philosopher's stone.
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