A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c32.165

v2.c32.165

for MSS. of alchemical Tantras we have come upon a precious find, in the shape of a Buddhist Tantra, with Nágárjuna as its reputed author. Of alchemical Tantras we have had enough and to spare; but there is great difficulty in assigning dates to them, as they one and all pretend to emanate from the mouth of the God Siva himself. We are only left to internal evidences—evidences based upon the gradual evolution of chemical processes, which we have not been slow to take advantage of. The MS. in question is a mere fragment, but it is calculated to evoke all the zeal and enthusiasm of a Palæontologist—of an Owen or a Marsh—in his efforts to restore an animal and assign to it its proper place in the economy of the laws of evolution, when he luckily chances upon a fossil impression of its tooth or claws. From this point of view Rasaratnákara, for such is the name of our MS., is of uncommon interest. It is a Tantra of the Maháyánist school and as such its invocations are