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The earliest mention of Rasayana was in Ayurveda which was probably composed by eighth to ninth century B.C., since it is a part of Atharvaveda, the last of the four Vedas, which were supposed to be written between the fifteenth to the eighth century B.C. The Ayurvedic system is a very ancient tradition of Indian medicine.b Caraka, the renouned medical practitioner of the third/ fourth century B.C., tells us that original Ayurveda consisted of eight parts and "Rasayana" was one of them. The eight parts were: 1. Kayacikitsa - Therapeutics. 2. Salakya The science of special diseases of the eyes, nose, ears, mouth, throat, etc. 3. Salyapahartrka Surgery. 4. Visagara vairodhikaprasamana Toxicology. 5. Bhutavidya Psychiatric knowledge. 6. Rasayana - 7. Kumarbhrtya Rejuvenation. Pediatrics. Knowledge for increasing virility. 8. Vajikarana - Knowle 6 See Caraka Samhita in Primary Sources, p. 4.

25 We find in the earlier Ayurvedic Treatises such as Caraka-Samhita, an extensive use of plants and plant products in the synthesis of medicines. Metals like gold, silver, lead, copper, iron and tin were used in medicinal Minerals like iron pyrite, copper pyrite, preparations. bitumen; salts such as common salt, rock salt, alkaline salts, black salt, fossil salt, etc. were known to have medicinal properties. Certain compounds like orpiment, realgar, iron and copper sulphates, antimony sulphide, etc. were usually used in external applications. A combination of metals, such as sarvaloha (which includes tin, lead, iron, copper and silver), as a finely divided powder in myrobalan juice was known as a tonic. Sulphur was used in medicines applied externally for skin diseases and also for internal administration in the form of a suspension in plant juices, for asthama, cough and chronic Bronze was used in making apparatus. skin diseases. Various salts, earths, alum, sulphur, quartz, etc. had internal as well as external applications. It is interesting to note that mercury is not mentioned in Caraka Samhita, nor cinnabar which is mercuric sulphide. Though "Sindura", i.e., mercuric sulphide or sometimes lead oxide, was known from ancient times, its use in elixir preparations was not known. Thus, it appears that mercurial medicine is a later development in the

26 history of Indian medicine. Mercury was included in texts such as Dhanvantari Niganthu or Rajniganthu. Rasayana in earlier texts probably did not include mercury. Rasayana in the sense of "medicines derived from mercury" appeared in the medieval period during which a large number of alchemical texts were written. We have discussed earlier in the Introduction that Hindu Philosophy cultivates transcendental tendencies which influenced Indians for over two millennia. Yet, every now and then, we find the advocates of materialism coming up in the form of Vratyas as they were called. After the decline of Buddhism and before Sankaracharya reinforced Hindu Philosophy, materialistic tendencies came to the fore in the form of Tantrism. Hence the period between 800 AD and 1300 AD is sometimes called the Tantrik 7 period in Indian history. Tantras offered to lead humans towards the divine experience in this very life. It advocated that preservation of the body or Kaya-Sadhana was the essential part in attaining this goal. Here mercurial preparations assumed great importance, and alchemy was at its peak during this period. A number of 7 Subbarayappa, B. V. - in "Concise History of Sciences of India", p. 316.

27 Tantrik texts such as Kubjikatantra, 8 Rasaratnakara were written in which characteristic features of Tantrism were entwined with alchemy. Tantrism developed as a counter-philosophy to the idealistic "Vedanta" philosophy, just like Taoism developed as a counter-philosophy to Confucianism in China. Parallels between Tantrism and Taoism, and the relation of Tantrism to science, are discussed by Chattopaddhyaya 9 in his work "Lokayata", where he aptly writes, The concept of physical immortality and its connection with the alchemy of Tantrikas is, again, strongly reminiscent of ancient Taoism. The Taoist, as Needham showed, were emphasizing the importance of certain techniques like the respiratory_technique (Pranayama), the gymnastic technique (asana), the sexual technique (Rasayana) and all these for the purpose of attaining a state of material immortality. This conception of material immortality, he added, was of incalculable importance to science because it stimulated the development of the technique of alchemy. We have seen that precisely the same thing was said of Tantrism by our Tantrikas themselves, unlike the followers of the idealistic system of Indian philosophy who belittle the importance of the body and dream of the liberation of the soul. The Tantrikas with their supreme emphasis on the material human body (Dehavada) conceived liberation only in terms of the development and the culture of the body (kaya-sadhana). It is no wonder, therefore, that they should have been so much concerned with concrete material measures that p. 357. 9 Ray, P. (1), see Secondary Sources, p. 115. Chattopadhyaya, D. P., see Secondary Sources,

could ensure the development and the preservation of the body itself. This explains their contribution to alchemy and medicine. In short, the proto-materialism of the Tantrikas was the clue to their proto-scientific tendencies. 28