A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c21.8

v1.c21.8

Traditionally, Agastya is a specialist in rasāyana, the art of longevity; a lost tantra on rasāyana, the Agastyatantra, is sometimes ascribed to him.¹⁵ Agastya is regarded as long-lived in the Rāmāyaṇa. His connection with rasāyana is clearly indicated by a quotation from one of his works in Cakrapāṇidatta’s Āyurvedadīpikā.¹⁶ In a work of the seventeenth century called Kriyāyoga, written in Sanskrit by Gannepūḍi Ādiveṅkaṭayogin, Agastya is said to be the originator of Kriyāyoga, in which rasāyana plays an important part.¹⁷