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It appears that during the period of the author of the Rasaratna Samuccaya with its system of Philosophy of mercury, a mass of chemical informations was accumulated in the treatise on Rasāyaṇavidyā and Ayurveda.
The prominent feature of this work lies in the search after the elixir vital.
The numerous methods for chemical preparation of mercury, iron, copper, gold, silver and other metals and minerals were meant to be helpful accessories in medicines.
Whatever has been revealed by an analysis of the materials found in the Rasaratna Samuccaya under the preparations of mercury, all that has been said by some other celebrated Indian authors on alchemy and medicine for the benefit of the people afflicted with diseases.
The Rasaratna Samuccaya is purely a chemical work dealing with metallurgy, operation of mercury and various chemical processes are incidentally described in it.
The author of the Rasaratna Samuccaya, a devout Jaina monk, begins his work with an adoration of Tirthankara. It appears that the entire corpus of this work on alchemy and medicine is a composition and an epitome based upon some standard works on the subjects-chemistry, metallury and medicine and the contribution of the adepts.
It is interesting to note that Māņikyadeva Sūri declares his indebtedness to the previous Ācāryas and their works for a knowledge of certain processes of alchemy and medicine.
The peculiarity of the Rasaratna Samuccaya is this that it is based upon some Indian Ayurvedic texts on the one hand and Indian chemical treatises on the other.
. It appears from a study of the contents of the Rasaratna Samuccaya in comparison with those of other Indian works on
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