@article{Maas_2017, place={Edmonton, Canada}, title={Rasāyana in Classical Yoga and Āyurveda}, volume={5}, url={https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/hssa/index.php/hssa/article/view/32}, DOI={10.18732/hssa.v5i2.32}, abstractNote={<p>The present chapter deals with <em>rasāyana</em> in the discipline of Yoga. More specifically, it focuses on the meaning of the word <em>rasāyana</em> in the <em>Pātañjalayogaśāstra</em> (PYŚ, late fourth or early fifth century CE), the oldest surviving Sanskrit exposition of Yoga as a soteriological system of thought from a Brāhmaṇa perspective. By interpreting the two difficult and slightly obscure text passages of the PYŚ that mention <em>rasāyana</em> in the light of its older commentaries and on the basis of additional references to <em>rasāyana</em> and related conceptions in early classical āyurvedic and upaniṣadic literature, the chapter concludes that for Patañjali <em>rasāyana</em> was a magically longevity potion prepared from unidentified herbs. The PYŚ neither refers to <em>rasāyana</em> as a branch of Āyurveda nor to alchemy. Some commentators of the PYŚ, however, interpret Patañjali's mentioning of <em>rasāyana</em> differently. While Vācaspatimiśra in the later half of the tenth century follows the PYŚ closely, the eleventh-century commentator Bhoja relates <em>rasāyana</em> to alchemy. Finally, the eighth-century (?) commentator Śaṅkara relates Patañjali's <em>rasāyana</em> to Āyurveda. Even though this interpretation is probably at odds with the PYŚ, it is not at all a far fetched, since the obtainment of various superpowers played an important role in āyurvedic <em>rasāyana</em> from the time of earliest sources onwards.</p>}, number={2}, journal={History of Science in South Asia}, author={Maas, Philipp André}, year={2017}, month={Dec.}, pages={66–84} }