रसार्णव (शैव रस-तन्त्र - प्राचीन भारतीय खनिज रसायन, धातुवाद एवं रस-चिकित्सा सटीक)

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ful passages. Additional help has also been derived from a com- parison of several extracts from Rasárnava with which Rasendra- chintímani, Rasaratnasamuchchaya, Sarvadarsanasamgraha., Yogatarangini etc. abound. In spite of all these collateral ad- vantages there was much that could be desired. While the third and concluding part of the present work was in the press, I received a letter from Kaviráj Durgánáráyan Sen Sástrí, who had been to Jammù on a professional visit, volunteering his servi- ces for the search of rare Sanskrit MSS. bearing upon Chemistry and Medicine. Among the several MSS. which the scholarly instinct of the Kaviráj had hit upon was one entitled Rasakáma- dhenu. Although this work is merely a compilation, it proved to me like a God-send, as it is full of lengthy extracts from Rasárnava of remarkable textual accuracy. Indeed, so material has been the help rendered by Rasakámadhenu that it has been thought advisable to draw up a list of corrections based upon this work and it has been inserted as an appendix. As the Preface appears over my signature alone, I avail myself of this opportunity of expressing my deep obligations to my collaborator, Pandit Harischandra Kaviratna, on whom has mainly devolved the vast labour of going carefully and critically through the text of the MSS. He has also drawn up the exhaus- tive table of contents (अनुक्रमणिका) and the alphabetical index with glossary of technical terms. It is to be hoped that even a casual reader will have no difficulty in finding out the parti- cular information he is in need of.