Editing Mithridatism (section)

==Background==
[[Mithridates VI of Pontus|Mithridates VI]]'s father, [[Mithridates V Euergetes|Mithridates V]], was assassinated by poisoning by a conspiracy among his attendants.<ref name=Smith1867>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=William |date=1867 |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2204.html |publisher=University of Michigan |isbn= 9781845110024 |archive-date=30 Dec 2005 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051230062409/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2204.html}}
</ref> After this, Mithridates VI's mother held regency over [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontus]] (a [[Hellenistic]] kingdom, 281 BC–62 AD) until a male heir came of age. Mithridates was in competition with his brother for the throne and his mother began to favor his brother.<ref name=Mayor2011>{{cite book |author-last=Mayor |author-first=Adrienne |title=The Poison King: the life and legend of Mithradates, Rome's deadliest enemy |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2011}}</ref>{{rp|68}} Supposedly, during his youth, he began to suspect plots against him at his own mother's orders and was aware of her possible connection with his father's death. He then began to notice pains in his stomach during his meals and suspected his mother had ordered small amounts of poison to be added to his food to slowly kill him off. With other assassination attempts, he fled into the wild.<ref name=Mayor2011/>{{rp|69}}

While in the wild, it is said that he began ingesting non-lethal amounts of poisons and mixing many into a universal remedy to make him immune to all known poisons.<ref name=McGing>{{cite book |author-last = McGing |author-first = B.C. |title = The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus |publisher = E.J. Brill |year= 1986 |location = Leiden |pages = 43}}</ref>

After Mithridates' death, many Roman physicians claimed to possess and improve the formula. In keeping with most medical practices of his era, Mithridates' anti-poison routines included a religious component, supervised by the ''Agari'', a group of [[Scythia]]n [[shaman]]s who never left him.<ref name=Mayor2003>{{cite book |author-last=Mayor |author-first=Adrienne |title=Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World |location=New York |publisher=Overlook Duckworth |date=2003 |pages=148}}</ref>

It has been suggested that Russian mystic [[Rasputin]]'s survival of a poisoning attempt was due to mithridatism, but this has not been proven.<ref name=Segen1992>{{cite book |title=The Dictionary of Modern Medicine |author-first=J.C. |author-last=Segen |date=1992}}</ref>

Indian epics talk about this practice as well. It has been said that, during the rule of the king [[Chandragupta Maurya]] (320–298 BC), there was a practice of selecting beautiful girls and administering poison in small amounts until they grew up, thus making them insensitive to poison. These maidens were called [[Vish Kanya|''vishakanyas'']] (visha 'poison' + kanya 'maiden'). It was believed that engaging in sexual activities with vishakanyas could result in the death of their partners, due to the exchange of poisonous body fluids. Vishakanyas were employed to kill enemies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Science |first=International Research Journal Commerce arts |date=2017-01-01 |title=Vishkanya : The Poisonous Celibate |url=https://www.academia.edu/43372708/Vishkanya_The_Poisonous_Celibate |journal=isara solutions}}</ref>

The emperor [[Bindusara]] was the son of the first Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya and his queen Durdhara. According to the ''Rajavalikatha'', a [[Jain]] work, the original name of this emperor was Simhasena. A legend mentioned in the Jain texts tells the story of how Chandragupta's [[Guru]] and advisor [[Chanakya]] used to feed the emperor with small doses of poison to build his immunity against possible poisoning attempts by his enemies.<ref name=Geiger1908>{{cite book
 | title = The Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa and their historical development in Ceylon
 | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.61006
 | author-first = Wilhelm |author-last=Geiger
 | translator = Ethel M. Coomaraswamy
 | publisher = H.C. Cottle |location=Ceylon
 | year = 1908
 | oclc = 559688590
 | page = 40
}}</ref> One day, Chandragupta, unaware that his food contained poison, shared his food with his pregnant wife, Queen Durdhara, who was seven days away from delivery. The queen, who was not immune to the poison, collapsed and died within a few minutes. Chanakya entered the room at the moment she collapsed, and in order to save the child in the womb, he immediately cut open the dead queen's belly and took the baby out. He was just in time; a drop of poison had already reached the baby and touched his head, leaving a permanent blueish spot (a "bindu") on his forehead. Thus, the newborn was named "Bindusara".<ref name=Srinivasachariar>{{cite book
 | title = History of classical Sanskrit literature
 | author-last = Srinivasachariar |author-first=M.
 | edition = 3rd
 | publisher = [[Motilal Banarsidass]]
 | year = 1989
 | isbn = 978-81-208-0284-1
 | page = 550
}}</ref>