Nagarjuna (metallurgist)
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Nāgārjuna (नागार्जुन) (c. 150-250 CE) is considered one of the most important Buddhism philosophers. In some traditions, the name "Nāgārjuna" is known as an Indian metallurgist and alchemist in 10th-century.
There are conflicting traditions of Nagarjuna as a founder of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism, and Nagarjuna the alchemist. Chinese and Tibetan literature suggests Nāgārjuna was born in Vidarbha, and later migrated to the nearby Satavahana dynasty. One tradition is that rasasiddha Nagarjuna was born in Gujarat and was a Jain in his past life. He later travelled to various places in South India and established many laboratories. There are evidences found of his experimental laboratory in village Nagalwadi in Maharashtra state. According to some evidences he was working on immortality and knew the extraction of iron and mercury. There is much confusion about this author in the secondary literature. A 1984 study of manuscripts and printed editions connected with the alchemist Nāgārjuna found that his name is associated with a work titled Rasendramaṅgala[1] but that the manuscripts of the Rasaratnākara are uniformly ascribed to a different author, Nityanātha Siddha.[2]