Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
An interview with Dr Priyanka Chorge, who is a ayurvedic doctor in Hamburg studying for in MA in South Asian studies. Dr Chorge runs an ayurvedic clinic in Hamburg and specialises in the premodern literature of Alchemy (Rasaśāstra). Specifically, she is contributing a chapter to the Alchemy Reader on “Medicine and Alchemy in the Rasaratnasamuccaya,” a 15th or 16th century Sanskrit work.
We will ask Dr Chorge:
• Did her education and clinical training as a doctor of Ayurveda and Rasaśāstra involve the study of historical Sanskrit texts?
• What challenges did you face when reading the Rasaratnasamuccaya?
• What value did her practitioner knowledge bring to the Sanskrit-to-English translation process?
• What are some of the special features of the chapter you are translating, specifically its section on medicine?
Dr Chorge's chapter in the Alchemy Reader:
Medicine and Alchemy: The Rasaratnasamuccaya (15th /16th century), Chapter 19.
The Rasaratnasamuccaya became the classic work of Indian alchemy and was widely copied. It dedicates more than half of its contents to medicine and shows an advanced stage of iatrochemical thought. Its prescriptions follow ayurvedic guidelines, but most of its medicines are mineral-based formulations. Chapter 19 is dedicated to the ayurvedic category of abdominal diseases (Sanskrit: udararoga) and their treatment.
This project was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under grant agreement No.639363.
An interview with Dr Priyanka Chorge, who is a ayurvedic doctor in Hamburg studying for in MA in South Asian studies. Dr Chorge runs an ayurvedic clinic in Hamburg and specialises in the premodern literature of Alchemy (Rasaśāstra). Specifically, she is contributing a chapter to the Alchemy Reader on “Medicine and Alchemy in the Rasaratnasamuccaya,” a 15th or 16th century Sanskrit work.
We will ask Dr Chorge:
• Did her education and clinical training as a doctor of Ayurveda and Rasaśāstra involve the study of historical Sanskrit texts?
• What challenges did you face when reading the Rasaratnasamuccaya?
• What value did her practitioner knowledge bring to the Sanskrit-to-English translation process?
• What are some of the special features of the chapter you are translating, specifically its section on medicine?
Dr Chorge's chapter in the Alchemy Reader:
Medicine and Alchemy: The Rasaratnasamuccaya (15th /16th century), Chapter 19.
The Rasaratnasamuccaya became the classic work of Indian alchemy and was widely copied. It dedicates more than half of its contents to medicine and shows an advanced stage of iatrochemical thought. Its prescriptions follow ayurvedic guidelines, but most of its medicines are mineral-based formulations. Chapter 19 is dedicated to the ayurvedic category of abdominal diseases (Sanskrit: udararoga) and their treatment.
This project was made possible through funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research
and innovation program under grant agreement No.639363.
