xcvi
also connected with alchemy.[1] We have already seen, while discussing the "Philosophy of Mercury" (see ante p. lxxvi), the Rasáyana or Alchemy was simply regarded as a means to an end—as a path leading to moksha. It is significant that this connection can be traced from so early a date.
Progress of chemical knowledge in Europe.In the present volume we shall seldom have occasion to go beyond the 14th century A. D. It will, perhaps, add to the interest of the subject, if we turn our eyes for a moment to the progress of chemical knowledge in Europe at that time, and the alchemistic ideas and beliefs dominating it. Contemporary with the authors of Rasárnava and Rasartnasamuchchaya, were Roger Bacon (d. 1294), Alertus Maguns, Raymond Lully, and Arnaldus Villanovanus. Roger Bacon does not hesitate to assert that the philoso-- ↑ The author (Patañjali) adds to the three parts of the path of liberation a fourth one of an illusory nature, called Rasáyana, consisting of alchemistic tricks with various drugs, intended to realise things which by nature are impossible."—Albérúní's 'India'—I. p. 80.
