A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c9.s3.13

v1.c9.s3.13

In the Buddhist canonical literature, Nágárjuna is a prominent figure as the founder, or, at any rate, the systematiser of the Mádhyamika philosophy. Western scholars maintain that he lived in the 1st century A.D., while according to Rájatarañginí, the "History of Kasmír" by Kalhana Misra (11 century A. D.), Nágárjuna flourished 150 years after Sakyasimha had betaken himself to asceticism, i.e. he lived in the last quarter of the 4th and first quarter of the 3rd century B. C. It is doubtful, however, if Nágárjuna, the philosopher, is the same as Nágárjuna, the alchemist, considering that we find no reference whatever to the processes of distillation, sublimation etc. in the Charaka, the Susruta, and the Vágbhata, though it must be admitted that the latter can lay claim to superior chemical knowledge. (see p. xlviii).