A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c9.s1.163

v1.c9.s1.163

We now come upon a period which determines the parting of ways in the progress of Hindu medicine. Hitherto we have been chiefly concerned with herbs and simples and a few readily available products of the mineral kingdom. About the year 1050 A. D. Chakrapáni Datta, himself a learned commentator of both the Charaka and Susruta, wrote the celebrated medical treatise which bears his name. Since the days of Vagbhata, metallic preparations had begun slowly to creep into use, and at the time of Chakrapáni and his predecessor Vrinda, they had so fully established their claims that they could no longer be ignored. Thus we find from the tenth century and downward every medical work more or less recommending compounds of metals which can only be synthetically prepared.