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variety of gems is caused by the characteristic qualities of
the earth, and yet the fourteenth century A.D. text Rasa-Ratna-
-Samuccaya continued to repeat the mythological theory.
Kautilya referred to the scientific approach of
categorisation of gems according to colour. The Ratnasastra
texts brought in the useful criteria of relative hardness,
specific gravity and optical properties towards the identi-
fication of gems. The reference to rasapaka in Kautilya shows
that rasasastra studies had been initiated during his time to
transform matter to useful variaties. Alchemy gradually evolved
from the sustained efforts of Caraka, Su艣ruta, Patanjali and
狈腻驳腻谤箩耻苍补.
In the meantime, the postulate about the atomic
constitution of matter, made by Kan膩da, was being refined by
the followers of the Vaisesika, Buddhist and Jaina philosophies.
Yet there was little correlation between the atomic theories
(speculative in nature) and the rasasastra experiments related
to distillation, digestion, reduction, oxidation, sulfidisation
etc. During the Tantric period we obtain the concept of sattva
satva denoting metallic essence, the metal extracted from a
mineral or ore. There are references to 'mercury from mercuric
sulphide', 'copper from copper sulphate' etc., but no categorica
statement to the effect that such an extracted metal is indeed
the same as the variety available in native state or obtainable
from another source. Iatrochemistry in ancient India fell short
of the European break-through in Daltonian Chemistry, and yet
by the thirteenth centure it had outgrown the earlier alchemical
extravaganza.