Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/113

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xcv

that we find no reference whatever to the processes of distillation. sublimation etc. in the Charaka, the Susruta, and the Vágbhata, though it must be admitted that the latter can lay claim to superior chemical knowledge. (see p. xlviii).

Patañjali.We have also another alchemist in Patañjali, who is better known as the commentator of Pánini. He probably lived in the 2nd century B. C.[1] Sivadása, in his commentary of Chakrapáni, quotes him as an authority on Lohasástra, or the "Science of Iron," and Chakrapáni himself speaks of him as the redactor of Charaka (see p. xv). Bhoja in his Nyáyavártika speaks of Patañjali, as a physician both to the mind and to the body.[2] The moksha (salvation), as taught in the Yoga system of Pátañjali, is
  1. Proof. Bhandarkar: Ind. Antiquary, 1872, pp. 299-302.
  2. "योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य तु वैद्यकेन।
    योऽपाकरोत् तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि॥"
    —Bhoja: Nyáyavártika, quoted by Sivaráma, the commentator of Vásavadatta.