Sage Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna was a great Indian philosopher and scientist lived in Ist century AD. He was father of the science of chemistry. He preached Buddhism in China during Han Dynasty.  He wrote many books on Metullargy, Ayurveda and Buddhist philosophy. Another Buddhist saint Kumarajeevan translated many of his books to Chinese.

His more popular books include Ras Ratnakar, Rashrudaya and Rasendramangal on Chemistry and Arogyamanjari, Kakshaputatantra, Yogasara and Yogasatak mainly on Ayurveda.  His Uttaratantra deals with preparation of medicinal drugs. Nagarjuna introduced addition of metallic compounds into Ayurvedic drugs which was mainly  dealing with Herbs and Vegetable products until then.  Methods for extraction/preparation of many metals like gold, silver, tin, copper, zinc ..etc were mentioned in Ras Ratnakar. He was the founder of Alchemy.