Introduction

CHAPTER I

Alchemical Ideas in the Vedas 1500 BC

The dawn of Hindu alchemy.

In tracing the progress of chemical knowledge among the civilized nations of antiquity, one always finds it intimately associated with medicinal preparations, metallurgical operations, the technical arts, and a belief in the transmutation of metals. In India, even more than in Europe, chemistry evolved primarily as a handmaid to medicine; and, somewhat later, as an adjunct to the Tantric cult. The efficacy of a drug was by no means considered sufficient unless it was supported by the benevolent intervention of the deities. Thus, in the Rigveda The oldest of the four Vedas, a collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns., we find the Asvins Divine twin horsemen in Hindu mythology., the physician gods, invoked; they are said to give sight to the blind and make the lame walk. These twin gods have many points in common with the Dioskouroi Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus in Greek mythology. of Greek mythology. One very