Suvarna Raupya Siddhi Shastra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

The aims and objects of Indian alchemy was to drive away poverty, disease and old age of the people.1 The Rasasiddhas were not satified with the achievements only in the field of lohasiddhi (alchemy of metal) to secure Kāyasiddhi-deathlessness and longevity with diseaseless body.?
They evolved a highly specialized branch of learning-the iatro-chemistry or Rasaśāstra along with alchemy through which different methods were discovered for the use of mercury, metals and minerals in the body with a view to securing Dehasiddhi.3
The period between IX A.D. to XV or XVIII cen. A.D. witnessed a remarkable progress in the field of alchemy and iatro chemistry.
From the examination of the material culture of the agamic and post-āgamic period as can be extracted from the Āgamas, the post-agamic works and the latest MSS of Jinadatta Sūri (VS. 1210) and other Jaina MSS. of different authors (13th-18th cen. A.D.), combined with their interpretation, in the light of archaeological and other Indian literary evidences, we can arrive at a certain conclusion about the scientific ideas and the practices of the Jainas.
The period of Jinadattasūri (VS. 1210) consistitutes the most flourishing and fruitful age of ancient India relating to the accumulation of knowledge in chemical science which was then closely associated with med abstract theories relate to the physical and chemical and biological theories, embracing the process of the entire cosmic evolution and the methodology of Science.
As Jaina alchemy, or chemistry had to deal primarily with the composition and changes of matter, a concise preliminary summary of some of these theories will be given in the beginning in the introduction to deal with the development in its practical aspect.
It may be stated that the theories were purely speculative in character with little or no experimental verification, being the result of only systematic and logical chemical thoughts, yet they may be said to stand in good comparison with some of the most recent and advanced scientific ideas of our time and to bear the stamp of high intellectual perfection and sublime intuition of the time of Jinadatta Sūri.
1. Suvarņa-Raupya-Siddhi-Sastra, ch. 14. 2. Rasattridaya Tantram, Govinda Bhagavatpada, chapter 1/10, Motilal Banarsidass,
Lahore, 1927. 3, Indian Alchemy and Tantras, pp. 369-70.