PREFACE

It was with diffidence and hesitation that I previously placed the furthest limit of alchemical Tantras Tantras: esoteric or ritualistic texts often containing early chemical/alchemical knowledge in the 12th century A.D. It now appears that this date should be pushed back by several centuries.

A History of Hindu Chemistry would rightly be considered incomplete if it did not deal with the constitution of matter and the various hypotheses regarding it. European historians of chemistry have always looked to Greece as the perennial fountain of knowledge on this subject, as on others. And it is natural that they should do so. See Vol. I, Intro. xliii. I am afraid that the Hindu atomistic school has not, until now, found an interpreter who could do it full justice. Henry Thomas Colebrooke's H. T. Colebrooke (1765–1837), a British scholar and orientalist known for his work on Sanskrit literature and Hindu law. presentation of it—which I had to rely upon in the first volume—is masterly as far as it goes, but it remains fragmentary. Not feeling equal to the task myself, I applied for assistance to Mr. Brajendra Náth Seal, Principal of Victoria College, Kuch Behar. Principal Seal has kindly responded to my appeal with alacrity. It is to be hoped that a long-felt desideratum Latin: "a thing desired or needed" has at last been fulfilled.

The frequent references made to the first volume should be understood to refer to its second edition. Those who happen to possess copies of the first edition, however, will not be put to any serious inconvenience.