This book has grown out of a UGC Major Project on Pharmacy in the Sanskrit Treatises on Rasayana in Eastern India awarded to the Editors in 2005. Rasayana, a sub-discipline of Ayurveda gradually got transformed into Alchemy the protoscience preceding Chemistry. In this monograph an obscure text. The Suvarnatantra of the 16th century has been deciphered. The original Sanskrit text its translation and interpretations by the research team have been incorporated. The introductory essay deals with the whole history of Rasayana in ancient India and the epilogue gives the colonial consequences of the mutation of Ayurveda. Table of Contents: Preface Rass Rasayana Rasatantra Exploring Concepts and Practices Sanskrit Text Translation of Suvarnatantra Suvarnatantra An Interpretation Interpreting Suvarnatantra Interpretation of Suvarnatantra Ayurveda in Colonial Bengal Survival and Revival. About the Author:
Chittabrata Palit professor in History Jadavpur University and now an UGC emeritus fellow. Nupur Dasgupta was co-investigator of the UGC project on Suvarnatantra.
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