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"Ganda Vyuha Sutra" is a Mahayana text. It is one of the nine original canonical texts and was written at the beginning of the Christian era. It was translated into Chinese for the first time by Zheng Kan of Honan province (Ca 388-408). Again in the seventh century Divakara (Ca 613-687) translated it into Chinese. Finally Prajna in the early ninth century translated this text into Chinese for the third time. All these translations are included in the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka. Mahavyutpatti, the ninth-century SanskritTibetan-Chinese dictionary gives synonymous ChineseTibetan words for those appearing in "Ganda Vyuha Sutra". This text was critically edited by Suzuki and Idzumi in 1959. Another edition was brought out by Vaidya in 1960. One finds a number of references to alchemy in this

Buddhist Sutra. For example, the following excerpts indicate the extent of knowledge of that age. a. 23 To give Amritadhatu or mercury to people ridden with old age and death. (p. 492) b. 24 25 C . - I know metallurgy. (p. 132) To investigate the medicinal (all-illness destroying) properties of mercury. (p. 495) 26 a. The persons who have taken Rasayana or elixir of life attain longevity and do not become weak. (p. 506) 27 e. A single measure of an elixir "Hatakaprabhasam" (meaning the substance which makes 110 23 jaramaranapan 鈥�katanam amrtadhatu danukamah , P. 492. 24 aham dhatutantrani prajanami ... p. 132. rasadhanubhutam sarvakarmaklesavarana samsodhanataya ... , p. 495. 26 27 rasayanopayuktah purusah dirghamayuh palayati na ca durbali bhavanti , p. 506. hatakaprabhasam nama ramajanam tasyekapalam lohapalasahastram

111 other substances appear as gold) transmute a thousand measures of other metals into gold. But if it is rubbed with a thousand measures of other metal, it does not get converted into other (inferior) metal. (p. 502) It is interesting to note that the elixir "Hatakaprabhasam" mentioned here is also referred to as "Rasajatam", i.e., "made of mercury"; giving a clue to its method of preparation. Probably "Hatakaprabhasam" was one. of the various elixirs made from mercury by adding different other ingredients, such as sulphur, cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, etc. Such elixirs were known in Chinese as well as Indian alchemy at that time. These references to alchemy in the Buddhist text "Ganda Vyuha Sutra" support the belief that Buddhists had a great interest in alchemy and that they practised it with a dual purpose: one, that of making gold; and the other, that of preparing medicines of mercury to cure various illnesses and achieve longevity. This provided them with a strong motive for devoting their energies to the investigation of the medicinal properties of mercury and FN. 27 continued svargikaroti na ca tadraram patham gakyam, tena lohapala saha kona maryadanum na lohikartum . ... p. 502.

112 its compounds. Mercury was named as Amritadhatu, i.e., the metal with the properties of Amrit, the drink which confers longevity and immortality. The methods of synthesizing certain elixirs like "Hatakaprabhasam", which were synthesized using mercury and which could transmute large amounts of base metals into gold, were known to them even before the second century AD. It is apparent that these translated Buddhist texts, which contained alchemical knowledge, carried the same to China as early as the fourth century AD. Presently we will discuss the case of a Tamil alchemical text "Bogar karpam" which depicts parallels with medieval Chinese alchemical methods and suggests the transmission of alchemical ideas from China to India.