NAGARJUNA’S YOGARATNAMALA

Description

Nagarjuna is our first known alchemist whose work has
survived to the present day. He belongs to the same age which
produced the famous non-rusting iron pillar of Delhi bearing
the inscription of ancient alchemic process. He describes
different types of crucibles and stills, cupellation, sublimates,
coloring and allowing of metals, extraction of copper from
pyrites, use of metal oxides as medicines, etc. etc.
In Chinese he is known as Lung-shu or Lung-Meng. The
Chinese traveler I-Tsing places Nagarjuna in he first century A. D.
as the contemporary of king Kanishka, both of whome are said to
have appeared four hundred years after the Nirvana of Buddha.
Long accounts of Nagarjuna are available in Tibetan
literature. There he is shrouded in legend and mystery.
Nagarjuna is the discoverer of several eye medicines and of
the elixieer of life which strengthens the weakening forces of men
in old age and prolongs life and happiness. He rescued starving
humanity from famines by exdchanging gold for grain in for off
lands.
In this edition Nagarjuna’s Yogaratanmala text with English
translation and notes are given