This is an addendum to my article "An Alchemical Ghost" in Ambix (1984: 70--83). DOI: 10.1179/amb.1984.31.2.70.
The chapters of the Rasendrakhaṇḍa
In 1984, I was not able to list the names of all the chapters of part 2 of the work, the Rasendrakhaṇḍa. Chapters 17-19 were missing from all the sources available to me. The name of chapter 20 was derived from a catalogue entry for a manuscript in Germany
- On p. 82, discussing the Rasendrakhaṇḍa, I referred to the edition of Y. T. Ācārya (1913) as being unavailable to me.
Details:Ācārya, Yādavaśarma Trivikrama, ed. śrīnityanāthasiddhaviracito Rasaratnākarāntargataś Caturtho Rasāyanakhaṇḍaḥ .. Saṃśodhitaḥ Prakāśitaś Ca = Rasayanakhanda, Fourth Part of Rasaratnâkara by Shri Nityanâthasiddha Edited by Jadavjî Tricumjî Âchârya Āyurvedīya Granthamālā (Bombay: The editor, at the Nirnayasagar Press, 1913).
A scan of that edition is now available at http://n2t.net/ark:/13960/t0005h71h
For the record, a reprint of this book, falsely calling itself a first edition (prathamaṃ saṃskaraṇam), was published by Caukhambā in Banāras in 1939. A scan of that second edition is available at http://n2t.net/ark:/13960/t9285md2b.
Ācārya's edition was based on two manuscripts owned by his friends:
1. Bombay, property of Vaidya Dāmodara Viṭṭhala Damaṇakara,
2. Barodara, property of Amṛta Vināyaka Jāmbekar.
This book does not give a list of the chapters of the Rasendrakhaṇḍa. - Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara Bhaṭṭācārya's Calcutta edition of 1878. I can find no online scan of this volume. It is described as edition "a in HIML IIB, page 702, footnote 169. This edition ascribes the Rasaratnākara to Nityānanda Siddhānta (sic). The final colophon of MS Jammu Raghunatha 4904 also makes this attribution.
- My other source for the twentieth Rasendrakhaṇḍa chapter name, viṣacikitsā, was taken from Janert and Poti, VOHD 2.2 (1970), no. 953:
MS Kathmandu NAK 4-1537
This MS, microfilmed by the NGMPP as A219/4 is available to me for study. It contains the Rasendrakhaṇḍa. The chapter titles up to 16 match almost exactly those published in Wujastyk 1984: 72. In addition there are the following chapter names:
17. vātapittaśleṣmādīnā cikitsā
18. sthaulyādikārśyāṇivāraṇam
19. śirorogacikitsā
20. [but called 25] karṇarāgādivakṣuroganivāraṇam
21. nāsyarogādichardinivāraṇam
22. vātarogādikāngranthinivāraṇam
23. hṛdrogādidīpanānta
24. ajīrṇādichādarogāṃtacikitsā
25. apasmārādisarvabhūtanivāraṇam
26. vṛścikāviṣādisaṃyogajānam
27. agnidagdhādibālagrahanivāraṇam
28. cikitsā
Thus, according to this manuscript, the Rasendrakhaṇḍa has not 20 but 28 chapters. Chapter 26 is on poisoning by scorpions etc.
MS Kathmandu NAK 5-3089, dated to 1648 CE
This MS, microfilmed by the NGMPP as A216/15 is available to me for
study. Dated saṃvat 1705. It contains the Rasendrakhaṇḍa. The chapter titles up to 16 match almost
exactly those published in Wujastyk 1984: 72. The additional chapter titles 17-28 match MS Kathmandu NAK 4-1537 exactly.
