Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c44.s3.6

v2.c44.s3.6

It is quite likely that the original Indian source from which Kumārajiva wrote Nāgārjuna’s biography in Chinese (AD 405), had mixed up the famous alchemist-cum-tāntric teacher, the contemporary of Yajñaśrī Gautamīputra Sātavāhana or Sātakarṇi (AD 166-96 or 174-203), with the (Mādhyamika) philosopher Nāgārjuna who was probably a contemporary of King Kaniṣka (AD 78-102) (Nalinākṣa Dutt’s view in Majumdar, Volume 2, 1980: 388). We are concerned with the alchemist (vide Sylvain Lévi). The suggestion that the alchemist and the philosopher were the same person is difficult to accept.