An interview with Prof. Dagmar Wujastyk, Principal Investigator of the AyurYog Project, about her research in the area of Indian alchemy and the creation of a field of study through the publication of an Alchemy Reader.
Prof. Wujastyk's contributions to the Alchemy Reader will include the introduction to the volume, a chapter on the Rasahṛdayatantra, a chapter on the Rasaprakāśasudhākara, and a co-written chapter with Dr Priyanka Chorge on the Rasaratnasamuccaya:
I. The goals of alchemical practice: The Rasahṛdayatantra (10th century), Chapter 19
The Rasahṛdayatantra gives a concise program of alchemical operations. In its nineteenth and final chapter, it provides a detailed description of the culmination of alchemical practice: the intake of the elixir by the practitioner and his subsequent transformation.
II. Medicine and Alchemy: The Rasaratnasamuccaya (15th /16th century), Chapter 19
The Rasaratnasamuccaya became the classic work of Indian alchemy and was widely copied. It dedicates more than half of its contents to medicine and shows an advanced stage of iatrochemical thought. Its prescriptions follow ayurvedic guidelines, but most of its medicines are mineral-based formulations. Chapter 19 is dedicated to the ayurvedic category of abdominal diseases (Sanskrit: udararoga) and their treatment.
III. The eighteen alchemical procedures: The Rasaprakāśasudhākara, Chapter One (16th century)
Most of the alchemical works provide a program of alchemical operations that lead to the main product of alchemy: the elixir, used for making gold and for attaining immortality and spiritual goals. The Rasaprakāśasudhākara outlines a set of eighteen procedures for making the elixir in its first chapter. This chapter will discuss the activities of alchemists and examine how their programs of alchemical operations reflect changes in alchemists’ aims over time.
This project was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under grant agreement No.639363.
