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.
Traditional accounts hold that Nāgārjuna practiced ayurvedic alchemy (rasayāna).
Kumārajīva's biography for example, describes Nāgārjuna making an elixir of invisibility, and Bus-ton, Taranatha and Xuanzang all recount that he could turn rocks into gold.
The most recent comprehensive discussion of the complicated text-historical issues connected with the name Nāgārjuna is given in the History of Indian Medical Literature.