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learned and revered Buddhist and alchemist, and a friend of King Satváhana.[1] The poet Vána, a contemporary of the Chinese pilgrim, also corroborates this account in his life of King Harsha.
In the Buddhist canonical literature, Nágárjuna is a prominent figure as the founder, or, at any rate, the systematiser of the Mádhyamika philosophy. Western scholars maintain that he lived in the 1st century A.D., while according to Rájatarañginí, the "History of Kasmír" by Kalhana Misra (11 century A. D.), Nágárjuna flourished 150 years after Sakyasimha had betaken himself to asceticism, i.e. he lived in the last quarter of the 4th and first quarter of the 3rd century B. C. It is doubtful, however, if Nágárjuna, the philosopher, is the same as Nágárjuna, the alchemist, considering
- ↑ Nágárguna was a friend of Satváhana, a king of Kosala country to the South West of Urisya and watered by the upper feeders of the Mahánadi."—Ibid. II. p. 209. As to the age of Satváhana see Burgess' Archæological Survey of S. India. Regarding Nágárjuna see also Introd. a l'histoire du Buddh. Ind. p. 508.
