‘The History of Hindu Chemistry’ A Critical Review

‘The History of Hindu Chemistry’ is one of the rare, important books published in twentieth century. Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray, the author of this book, who was a chemist by profession, has contributed greatly to the field of Rasashastra in his own style. The book in two volumes is in English and has achieved international recognition. The work became the cause of enlightening people specially, the Westerners about Indian Alchemy which, they were till then unaware of. In a way, ‘globalization’ of the concepts of Rasashastra has its starting point in the works of Sir P.C.Ray. The author has touched almost every area of Rasashastra of course, from the standpoint of modern Chemistry. A critical analysis of his contributions, the narration of the contents of the book are detailed in the paper.