Essay name: Alchemy in India and China
Author:
Vijaya Jayant Deshpande
Affiliation: Panjab University / Department of Chemistry
The thesis "Alchemy in India and China" explores the comparative aspects of alchemy in these two countries, focusing on chemical and protochemical formulations while addressing why modern science developed in the West rather than in India or China. It briefly touches upon internal alchemy in China and the ritualistic tantra in India.
Chapter 1 - Introduction to the history of Alchemy
15 (of 18)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
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about such transmissions.
Needham mentions Indian alchemy
only in light of the remarks made by Chinese travelers
in their accounts and those found in some of the Chinese
texts and dynastic records.
Works such as "Chinese Alchemy
-
Preliminary
Studies" by Nathan Sivin; "Alchemy in Ming China", "An
Introduction to Science and Civilization in China" by
Ho Peng-Yoke; "Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China
of AD-320" by James Ware are very illuminating.
Further,
On
there are books published in Japan such as "Medieval
Chemistry (alchemy) and the Arts of Immortality" by
Yoshida Mitsukuni and "Studies in the History of Medieval
Chinese Science and Technology" by Yabuuchi Kiyoshi.
the whole, one may say that Chinese alchemy and proto-
chemistry have been given some attention by scholars,
European as well as Chinese and Japanese. In the case of
Indian alchemy the picture is quite different.
The only profound study of the subject has been made
by Prafulla Chandra Ray in his volumes on Hindu Chemistry,
which are later condensed in a single volume, "The History
of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India" by
Priyadanandan Ray. An account of a large number of
Sanskrit texts is given in this volume, with some discussion
and translations of selected verses. It depicts the main
chemical and alchemical practices and the overall trend
