A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c50.s5: Date
A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c50.s5
- Language
- English
Date
v3.c50.s5.1
Nityanātha’s Rasaratnākara has been assigned to the period between the third century B.C. and the fourth century after Christ, 162 the twelfth, 163 twelfth or thirteenth, 164 thirteenth, 165 thirteenth or fourteenth, 166 fourteenth, 167 and fifteenth century. 168 D.G. White expressed as his opinion that Nityanātha lived slightly later than Gorakṣanātha but earlier than the author of the Bhūtiprakaraṇa of the Gorakṣasaṃhitā, in the late thirteenth century. 169
v3.c50.s5.2
This uncertainty concerning the chronological position of the work can be cleared up by taking into consideration the works and authors mentioned in it and those referring to it. The reference to Gorakṣanātha indicates that the Rasaratnākara is later than the thirteenth century, the reference to the KāKacaṇḍeśvarīmata that it is posterior to
v3.c50.s5.3
about A.D. 1400. Nityanātha’s work was well known in the sixteenth century, as appears from references to and quotations from it in Ānandabhāratī’s Ānandamālā, Bhāmīśra’s Bhāvaprakāśa, Ṭoḍara’s Āyurvedasaukhya, and Miyān Bhūwah’s Ma‘din al-Shifā’. Nityanātha’s date can be pushed back further because he was known to Gopālakṛṣṇa, the author of the Rasendrasārasaṃgraha (last quarter fifteenth century) and to the author(s) of the Lakṣmaṇotsava (A.D. 1449/50).
v3.c50.s5.4
The evidence points to the first half of the fifteenth century as the period of composition of Nityanātha’s Rasaratnākara. This dating is supported by the earliest MS of the work, completed in A.D. 1473. 170
v3.c50.s5.5
Rasaratnasamuccaya
v3.c50.s5.6
The *Rasaratnasamuccaya* by Vāgbhaṭa¹ is an extensive manual of alchemy and iatrochemistry.