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It appears that the the entire series of the Jaina treatises on alchemy is a compostion and epitome based upon some standard works on the subjects - chemistry, metallurgy, medicine and occultism and the contribution of the adepts. It is interesting to note that some Jaina alchemists declared their indebtedness to the previous Ācāryas like Nagārjuna, 2 Padaliptasuri,3 Carpața, Natha.5 Sekham Ali and others? for a knowledge of certain processes of alchemy as is found in the case of other Indian works on alchemy. This seems to indicate that the cultivation of alchemy and chemical knowledge among the Jainācāryas became neglected at a certain period of Indian history of alchemy and almost forgotteri and the earnest research into the lore of alchemy has to be made during the time of the Jaina alchemists of the latro chemical period as was the case with the authors of other Indian works on Rasāyanavidyā on this problem.
The peculiarity of the Jaina works of the Introchemical period on alchemy is this that they are based upon the Indian Ayurveda texts10 on the one hand and the Indian Tantric chemical treatisesll on the other. It appears from a study of the contents of the Jaina works Suvarņa-RaupyaSiddhi śāstra and others on alchemy in comparison with those of other Indian works on alchemy that the Jaina woiks are more or less a compi
1. There are some references to the inclusion of some additional materials of the later
period in Suvarņa-Raupyā siddhi-Sastra and other Jaina work on alchemy, e. g.. Phiringiroga, phiringivāya etc., besides the mention of chemical formulae of Nagarujmna, Carpața Padaliptasūri, Sekham All. etc. ia the fst and 2nd chapteres of Survrn
Raupy-Siddhi-Sastra. See, Rasaratnasaum caya. Māņikyadevasûri. Contd., 2. Nagerjuna kehe dhandha thoda / SRS S., Ch. 60.
“Pālittaya-mai mai mahil/“Ibid. ch. II 4. 4. "Cajapata kare tamāsā I, Ibid., ch. I 8, 14, 17, 36, 39, 5. "Natha bole...” Ibid. ch. I 19, 6. "Sekham Ali, "Ibid, ch, 1, 60, MS. 7. "Gandu bole". Ibid., ch, 1, 11, See Rasaratnasamuccaya, Māņikyadevasnri.
See Rasaratnākara, Rasārņava, Rasaratna-Samuccaya, etc. 9. Suvarnaraupyasiddhisāstra of Jinadattasûri. Rasaratnasmu aya, of Mānikyadeva
Sūri, Nagarjunividya, Pāradevidhi. etc.. 10. See Carakasamhitā, Susrutasmhitā, Kalyāṇakāraka in regard to rasaprakaraña, etc., 11. See Rasaratnākara, etc., . ..
In almost every country the progress of Chemistry can be traced back to medicine and a belief in the making of articial gold by a chemical process of the transformation of base metals in to gold,
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