Research:2024-01-01/Book chapter/cannabis-in-traditional-indian-alchemy

Research record1 January 2024Book chapter

Cannabis in Traditional Indian Alchemy

Patricia Sauthoff

In Maas & Cerulli (eds.), Suhṛdayasaṃhitā: A Compendium of Studies on South Asian Culture, Philosophy and Religion. Dedicated to Dominik Wujastyk (Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 28). Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, pp. 165–179. · 2024

A philological and historical study of cannabis in the 12th–13th-century Sanskrit rasaśāstra text Ānandakanda, whose chapter 15 (186 verses) is the most extensive premodern Indian monograph on the plant. Updates Wujastyk (2002) with attention to the seven cannabis-mantras of the Ānandakanda, the fifteen Sanskrit synonyms (including the earliest secure attestation of gañjā), the male–female plant distinction, alchemical recipes, signs of intoxication, and the rarity of cannabis as an ingredient elsewhere in the rasaśāstra corpus. Closes with the etymological history of "marijuana" and other modern-language terms.

SourceDOIPDF

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Record created 27 May 2026 · maintained by landrace.wiki editors · page history

Published1 Jan 2024

TypeBook chapter

VenueIn Maas & Cerulli (eds.), Suhṛdayasaṃhitā: A Compendium of Studies on South Asian Culture, Philosophy and Religion. Dedicated to Dominik Wujastyk (Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 28). Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, pp. 165–179.

Year2024

DOI10.11588/hasp.1386.c20158

CountryIndia

SourceDOIPDF

2024-01-01 2026-05-27 Cannabis in Traditional Indian Alchemy Book chapter Culture Patricia Sauthoff In Maas & Cerulli (eds.), Suhṛdayasaṃhitā: A Compendium of Studies on South Asian Culture, Philosophy and Religion. Dedicated to Dominik Wujastyk (Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 28). Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, pp. 165–179. 2024 10.11588/hasp.1386.c20158 https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1386 https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1386.c20158 A philological and historical study of cannabis in the 12th–13th-century Sanskrit rasaśāstra text Ānandakanda, whose chapter 15 (186 verses) is the most extensive premodern Indian monograph on the plant. Updates Wujastyk (2002) with attention to the seven cannabis-mantras of the Ānandakanda, the fifteen Sanskrit synonyms (including the earliest secure attestation of gañjā), the male–female plant distinction, alchemical recipes, signs of intoxication, and the rarity of cannabis as an ingredient elsewhere in the rasaśāstra corpus. Closes with the etymological history of "marijuana" and other modern-language terms. India