The history of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent began prior to the 3rd millennium BCE and continued well into the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
.
Metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
s and related concepts were mentioned in various early
Vedic age
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...
texts. The
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
already uses the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
term Ayas(आयस) (metal). The
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n cultural and commercial contacts with the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
and the
Greco-Roman world
The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...
enabled an exchange of metallurgic sciences. With the advent of the Mughals (established: April 21, 1526—ended: September 21, 1857) further improved the established tradition of metallurgy and metal working in India. During the period of British rule in India (first by the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
and then by the
Crown), the metalworking industry in India stagnated due to various colonial policies, though efforts by industrialists led to the industry's revival during the 19th century.
Overview
Recent excavations in Middle Ganga Valley done by archaeologist Rakesh Tewari show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE. Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and
Lahuradewa
Lahuradewa (Lat. 26°46'12" N; Long. 82°56'59" E) is located in Sant Kabir Nagar District, in Sarayupar (Trans-Sarayu) region of the Upper Gangetic Plain in Uttar Pradesh state of India. The Sarayupar Plain is bounded by the Sarayu River in th ...
in the state of
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
show iron implements in the period between 1800 BCE - 1200 BCE. Sahi (1979: 366) concluded that by the early 13th century BCE, iron smelting was definitely practiced on a bigger scale in India, suggesting that the date the technology's inception may well be placed as early as the 16th century BCE.
The
Black and Red Ware culture
Black and red ware (BRW) is a South Asian earthenware, associated with the neolithic phase, Harappa, Bronze Age India, Iron Age India, the megalithic and the early historical period. Although it is sometimes called an archaeological culture, the ...
was another early Iron Age archaeological culture of the northern
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. It is dated to roughly the 12th – 9th centuries BCE, and associated with the post-
Rigvedic
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one S ...
Vedic civilization
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betwe ...
. It extended from the upper
Gangetic plain
The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, including most of northern and eastern India, around half of Pakistan, virtually all of Bangla ...
in
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
to the eastern
Vindhya
The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India.
Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...
range and
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
.
Perhaps as early as 300 BCE, although certainly by 200 CE, high quality steel was being produced in
southern India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...
by what Europeans would later call the
crucible technique
Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron (cast iron), iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other fluxes, in a crucible. In ancient times steel and iron were impossible to melt using charcoal or coal fires ...
. In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in crucibles and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon. The resulting high-carbon steel, called ''fūlāḏ فولاذ'' in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and ''
wootz
Wootz steel, also known as Seric steel, is a crucible steel characterized by a pattern of bands and high carbon content. These bands are formed by sheets of microscopic carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix in higher carbon st ...
'' by later Europeans, was exported throughout much of Asia and Europe.
Will Durant wrote in ''
The Story of Civilization
''The Story of Civilization'' (1935–1975), by husband and wife Will and Ariel Durant, is an 11-volume set of books covering both Eastern and Western civilizations for the general reader, with a particular emphasis on European (Western) history. ...
I: Our Oriental Heritage'':
Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and other texts
The Sanskrit term Ayas means
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
and can refer to
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
,
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
or
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
.
Rigveda
The
Rig Veda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...
refers to ayas, and also states that the
Dasyus had Ayas (RV 2.20.8). In RV 4.2.17, "the gods
resmelting like
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
/metal ore the human generations".
The references to Ayas in the Rig Veda probably refer to bronze or copper rather than to iron. Scholars like Bhargava maintain that Rigved was written in the Vedic state of Brahmavarta and Khetri Copper mines formed an important location in Brahmavarta. Vedic people had used Copper extensively in agriculture, Water purification, tools, utensils etc.,
D. K. Chakrabarti
Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti (born 27 April 1941) is an Indian archaeologist, Professor Emeritus of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University, and a Senior Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. He i ...
(1992) argued: "It should be clear that any controversy regarding the meaning of ayas in the Rgveda or the problem of the Rgvedic familiarity or unfamiliarity with iron is pointless. There is no positive evidence either way. It can mean both copper-bronze and iron and, strictly on the basis of the contexts, there is no reason to choose between the two."
Arthashastra
The
Arthashastra
The ''Arthashastra'' ( sa, अर्थशास्त्रम्, ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is ...
lays down the role of the Director of Metals, the Director of Forest Produce and the Director of Mining.
[Chakrabarti 1992] It is the duty of the Director of Metals to establish factories for different metals. The Director of Mines is responsible for the inspection of
mines. The Arthashastra also refers to
counterfeit
To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
coins.
Other texts
There are many references to Ayas in the early Indian texts.
The
Atharva Veda and the
Satapatha Brahmana refer to ''krsna ayas'' ("black metal"), which could be iron (but possibly also iron ore and iron items not made of smelted iron). There is also some controversy if the term syamayas ("black metal) refers to iron or not. In later texts the term refers to
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
. In earlier texts, it could possibly also refer to darker-than-copper
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
, an
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
of copper and
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
. Copper can also become black by heating it.
[Kazanas, Nicholas: Addendum to The AIT and Scholarship] Oxidation with the use of sulphides can produce the same effect.
The
Yajurveda
The ''Yajurveda'' ( sa, यजुर्वेद, ', from ' meaning "worship", and ''veda'' meaning "knowledge") is the Veda primarily of prose mantras for worship rituals.Michael Witzel (2003), "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in ''The Blackwell C ...
seems to know iron.
In the
Taittiriya Samhita
The ''Taittirīya Shakha'' (Sanskrit, loosely meaning 'Branch or School of the sage Tittiri'), is a ''shakha'' (i.e. 'branch', 'school', or rescension) of the Krishna (black) Yajurveda. Most prevalent in South India, it consists of the ''Taitti ...
are references to ayas and at least one reference to
smiths.
The
Satapatha Brahmana 6.1.3.5 refers to the smelting of metallic ore.
[Chakrabarti 1996] In the Manu Smriti (6.71), the following analogy is found: "For as the impurities of metallic ores, melted in the blast (of a furnace), are consumed, even so the taints of the organs are destroyed through the suppression of the breath." Metal was also used in
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, and the Buddhist text
Suttanipata has the following analogy: "for as a
ploughshare that has got hot during the day when thrown into the water splashes, hisses and smokes in volumes..."
In the
Charaka Samhita
The ''Charaka Samhita'' (, “Compendium of ''Charaka''”) is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine). Along with the ''Sushruta Samhita'', it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancien ...
an analogy occurs that probably refers to the
lost wax
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
technique.
The
Silpasastras (the
Manasara
The ''Mānasāra'', also known as ''Manasa'' or ''Manasara Shilpa Shastra'', is an ancient Sanskrit treatise on Indian architecture and design. Organized into 70 ''adhyayas'' (chapters) and 10,000 ''shlokas'' (verses), it is one of many Hindu tex ...
, the
Manasollasa (Abhilashitartha Chintamani) and the
Uttarabhaga of
Silparatna
{{Use Indian English, date=December 2019
Shilparatna is a classical text on traditional South Indian representational-performing arts. It is particularly influential in painting and theatrical performance. It was authored by Srikumara in 16th cen ...
) describe the lost wax technique in detail.
The
Silappadikaram
''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram'' or ''Silappatikaram'', is the e ...
says that copper-smiths were in
Puhar Puhar may refer to:
People
* Alenka Puhar (born 1945), Slovenian journalist
* Janez Puhar (1814-1864), Slovene priest, also known as Johann Pucher
* Janko Puhar (1920-1985), Yugoslav swimmer
* Mirjana Puhar, competitor in America's Next Top Mod ...
and in
Madura.
According to the History of the Han Dynasty by
Ban Gu
Ban Gu (AD32–92) was a Chinese historian, politician, and poet best known for his part in compiling the ''Book of Han'', the second of China's 24 dynastic histories. He also wrote a number of '' fu'', a major literary form, part prose ...
,
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
and "Tien-chu" were rich in metals.
An influential Indian metallurgist and
alchemist
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...
was
Nagarjuna
Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
(born 931). He wrote the treatise ''Rasaratnakara'' that deals with preparations of ''rasa'' (
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
) compounds. It gives a survey of the status of metallurgy and
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
in the land. Extraction of metals such as silver, gold, tin and copper from their ores and their purification were also mentioned in the treatise. The Rasa Ratnasamuccaya describes the extraction and use of copper.
Archaeology
Chakrabarti (1976) has identified six early iron-using centres in India:
Baluchistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
, the Northwest, the Indo-Gangetic divide and the upper
Gangetic valley, eastern India,
Malwa
Malwa is a historical region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range. Politically and administratively, it is also syno ...
and
Berar in central India and the megalithic south India.
The central Indian region seems to be the earliest iron-using centre.
According to Tewari, iron using and iron "was prevalent in the Central
Ganga
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
Plain and the Eastern
Vindhyas
The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India.
Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...
from the early 2nd millennium BC."
The earliest evidence for smelted iron in India dates to 1300 to 1000 BCE. These early findings also occur in places like the
Deccan and the earliest evidence for smelted iron occurs in Central India, not in north-western India. Moreover, the dates for iron in India are not later than in those of Central Asia, and according to some scholars (e.g. Koshelenko 1986) the dates for smelted iron may actually be earlier in India than in Central Asia and Iran. The
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
did however not necessary imply a major social transformation, and
Gregory Possehl wrote that "the Iron Age is more of a continuation of the past then a break with it".
Archaeological data suggests that India was "an independent and early centre of iron technology." According to Shaffer, the "nature and context of the iron objects involved
f the BRW culture
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
are very different from early iron objects found in Southwest Asia." In Central Asia, the development of iron technology was not necessarily connected with Indo-Iranian migrations either.
J.M. Kenoyer
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer (born 28 May 1952, in Shillong, India) is an American archaeologist and ''George F. Dales Jr. & Barbara A. Dales'' Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned his Bachelor of Arts, Master's ...
(1995) also remarks that there is a "long break in
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
acquisition" necessary for the production of "tin bronzes" in the Indus Valley region, suggesting a lack of contact with
Baluchistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
and northern Afghanistan, or the lack of migrants from the north-west who could have procured tin.
Indus Valley Civilization
The
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
-
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
metallurgy in the Harappan civilization was widespread and had a high variety and quality. The early use of iron may have developed from the practice of copper-smelting. While there is to date no proven evidence for smelted iron in the
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
,
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
and iron items have been unearthed in eight Indus Valley sites, some of them dating to before 2600 BCE. There remains the possibility that some of these items were made of smelted iron, and the term "krsna ayas" might possibly also refer to these iron items, even if they are not made of smelted iron.
Lothali copper is unusually pure, lacking the
arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...
typically used by coppersmiths across the rest of the Indus valley. Workers mixed tin with copper for the manufacture of
celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
s, arrowheads, fishhooks, chisels, bangles, rings, drills and spearheads, although weapon manufacturing was minor. They also employed advanced metallurgy in following the ''cire perdue'' technique of casting, and used more than one-piece moulds for casting birds and animals. They also invented new tools such as curved saws and twisted drills unknown to other civilizations at the time.
Metals
Brass
Brass was used in Lothal and Atranjikhera in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE.
Brass and probably zinc was also found at Taxila in 4th to 3rd century BCE contexts.
[Craddock ''et al.'' 1983]
Copper
Copper technology may date back to the 4th millennium BCE in the
Himalaya
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
region.
It is the first element to be discovered in
metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
,
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
and its
alloys
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
were also used to create copper-bronze images such as Buddhas or Hindu/
Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...
Buddhist deities.
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...
also noted that there were copper-bronze Buddha images in
Magadha
Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...
.
In
Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
, each stage of the image manufacturing process is handled by a specialist.
Other metal objects made by Indian artisans include
lamp
Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to:
Lighting
* Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source
* Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel
* Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity
* Light fixture, or ligh ...
s. Copper was also a component in the razors for the
tonsure
Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...
ceremony.
One of the most important sources of history in the Indian subcontinent are the royal records of grants engraved on
copper-plate grant Indian copper plate inscriptions are historical legal records engraved on copper plates in India.
Donative inscriptions engraved on copper plates, often joined by a ring with the seal of the donor, was the legal document registering the act of endo ...
s (tamra-shasan or tamra-patra). Because copper does not rust or decay, they can survive indefinitely. Collections of archaeological texts from the copper-plates and rock-inscriptions have been compiled and published by the
Archaeological Survey of India
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexande ...
during the past century. The earliest known copper-plate known as the Sohgaura copper-plate is a
Maurya record that mentions famine relief efforts. It is one of the very few pre-
Ashoka Brahmi
Brahmi (; ; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such ...
inscriptions in India.
Gold and silver
The deepest gold mines of the Ancient world were found in the
Maski region in Karnataka. There were ancient silver mines in northwest India. Dated to the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. gold and silver were also used for making utensils for the royal family and nobilities.the royal family wore costly fabrics that were made from gold and silver thin fibres embroidered or woven into fabrics or dress.
Iron
Recent excavations in Middle Ganges Valley show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE.
[ In the 5th century BCE, the Greek historian ]Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
observed that "Indian and the Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
army used arrow
An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...
s tipped with iron."[Srinivasan, Sharda and Srinivasa Rangnathan. 2004] Ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
used armour
Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...
and cutlery
Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware), includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. The city of Sheffie ...
made of Indian iron. Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
also mentioned Indian iron. Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote the Hindus excelled in the manufacture of iron, and that it would be impossible to find anything to surpass the edge from Hindwani steel. Quintus Curtius
Quintus Curtius Rufus () was a Roman historian, probably of the 1st century, author of his only known and only surviving work, ''Historiae Alexandri Magni'', "Histories of Alexander the Great", or more fully ''Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedon ...
wrote about an Indian present of steel to Alexander. ''Ferrum indicum'' appeared in the list of articles subject to duty under Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
and Commodus
Commodus (; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman emperor who ruled from 177 to 192. He served jointly with his father Marcus Aurelius from 176 until the latter's death in 180, and thereafter he reigned alone until his assassination. ...
. Indian Wootz steel was held in high regard in Europe, and Indian iron was often considered to be the best.
Wootz and steel
The first form of crucible steel was wootz
Wootz steel, also known as Seric steel, is a crucible steel characterized by a pattern of bands and high carbon content. These bands are formed by sheets of microscopic carbides within a tempered martensite or pearlite matrix in higher carbon st ...
, developed in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
some time around 300 BCE. In its production the iron was mixed with glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
and then slowly heated and then cooled. As the mixture cooled the glass would bond to impurities in the steel and then float to the surface, leaving the steel considerably purer. Carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
could enter the iron by diffusing in through the porous walls of the crucibles. Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
would not react with the iron, but the small amounts of carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
could, adding carbon to the mix with some level of control. Wootz was widely exported throughout the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, where it was combined with a local production technique around 1000 CE to produce Damascus steel, famed throughout the world. Wootz derives from the Tamil term for steel ''urukku''. Indian wootz steel was the first high quality steel that was produced.
Henry Yule quoted the 12th-century Arab Edrizi who wrote: "The South Indians excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparations of those ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of soft iron which is usually styled Indian steel. They also have workshops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world. ...It is not possible to find anything to surpass the edge that you get from Indian steel (al-hadid al-Hindi).
As early as the 17th century, Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
ans knew of India's ability to make crucible steel from reports brought back by travelers who had observed the process at several places in southern India. Several attempts were made to import the process, but failed because the exact technique remained a mystery. Studies of wootz were made in an attempt to understand its secrets, including a major effort by the famous scientist, Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
, son of a blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
. Working with a local cutlery
Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware), includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. The city of Sheffie ...
manufacturer he wrongly concluded that it was the addition of aluminium oxide and silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...
from the glass that gave wootz its unique properties.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
, many Indian wootz steel swords were ordered to be destroyed by the East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. The metalworking industry in India went into decline during the period of British Crown control due to various colonial policies, but steel production was revived in India by Jamsetji Tata
Jamsetji (Jamshedji) Nusserwanji Tata (3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian pioneer industrialist who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest conglomerate company. Named the greatest philanthropist of the last century by several poll ...
.
Zinc
Zinc was extracted in India as early as in the 4th to 3rd century BCE. Zinc production may have begun in India, and ancient northwestern India is the earliest known civilization that produced zinc on an industrial scale. The distillation technique was developed around 1200 CE at Zawar in Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
.
In the 17th century, China exported Zinc to Europe under the name of totamu or tutenag. The term tutenag may derive from the South Indian term ''Tutthanagaa'' (zinc). In 1597, Libavius, a metallurgist in England received some quantity of Zinc metal and named it as Indian/Malabar lead. In 1738, William Champion is credited with patenting in Britain a process to extract zinc from calamine in a smelter, a technology that bore a strong resemblance to and was probably inspired by the process used in the Zawar zinc mines in Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
. His first patent was rejected by the patent court on grounds of plagiarising the technology common in India. However, he was granted the patent on his second submission of patent approval. Postlewayt
Malachy Postlethwayt (5 May 1707–13 September 1767) was a British economist and lexicographer famous for his publication of the commercial dictionary titled The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce' in 1757. The dictionary was a tran ...
's Universal Dictionary of 1751 still wasn't aware of how Zinc was produced.
The Arthashastra describes the production of zinc. The Rasaratnakara by Nagarjuna
Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...
describes the production of brass and zinc. There are references of medicinal uses of zinc in the Charaka Samhita
The ''Charaka Samhita'' (, “Compendium of ''Charaka''”) is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine). Along with the ''Sushruta Samhita'', it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancien ...
(300 BCE). The Rasaratna Samuchaya
''Rasaratna Samuccaya'' ( Devanagari: रसरत्न समुच्चय) is an Indian Sanskrit treatise on alchemy. The text is dated between 13th to 16th century CE.
The text contains detailed descriptions of various complex metallurgica ...
(800 CE) explains the existence of two types of ores for zinc metal, one of which is ideal for metal extraction while the other is used for medicinal purpose. It also describes two methods of zinc distillation.
Early History (—200 BCE)
Recent excavations in Middle Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
Valley conducted by archaeologist Rakesh Tewari show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE.[ Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in the state of ]Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
show iron implements in the period between 1800 BCE-1200 BCE.[ Sahi (1979: 366) concluded that by the early 13th century BCE, iron smelting was definitely practiced on a bigger scale in India, suggesting that the date the technology's early period may well be placed as early as the 16th century BCE.][Tewari (2003)]
Some of the early iron objects found in India are dated to 1400 BCE by employing the method of radio carbon dating.[ Spikes, knives, ]dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...
s, arrow
An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...
-heads, bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
, spoons, saucepan
Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...
s, axes, chisel
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
s, tongs, door fittings etc. ranging from 600 BCE—200 BCE have been discovered from several archaeological sites.[Ceccarelli, 218] In Southern India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and T ...
(present day Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
) iron appeared as early as the 12th or 11th century BCE.[ These developments were too early for any significant close contact with the northwest of the country.][Drakonoff, 372]
The earliest available Bronze age swords of copper discovered from the Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
n sites in Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
date back to 2300 BCE.[Allchin, 111-114] Swords have been recovered in archaeological findings throughout the Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
- Jamuna Doab region of India, consisting of bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
but more commonly copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
.[ Diverse specimens have been discovered in Fatehgarh, where there are several varieties of hilt.][ These swords have been variously dated to periods between 1700 and 1400 BCE, but were probably used more extensively during the opening centuries of the 1st millennium BCE.][
The beginning of the 1st millennium BCE saw extensive developments in iron metallurgy in India.][ Technological advancement and mastery of iron metallurgy was achieved during this period of peaceful settlements.][ The years between 322 and 185 BCE saw several advancements being made to the technology involved in metallurgy during the politically stable Maurya period (322—185 BCE). Greek historian ]Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
(431—425 BCE) wrote the first western account of the use of iron in India.[
Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.][Juleff 1996] In this system, high-purity wrought iron, charcoal, and glass were mixed in a crucible and heated until the iron melted and absorbed the carbon.[ The first crucible steel was the wootz steel that originated in India before the beginning of the common era.][Srinivasan & Ranganathan] Wootz steel was widely exported and traded throughout ancient Europe, China, the Arab world, and became particularly famous in the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, where it became known as Damascus steel. Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the common era.[Srinivasan 1994][Srinivasan & Griffiths]
Zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
mines of Zawar, near Udaipur
Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...
, Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
, were active during 400 BCE.[Craddock (1983)] There are references of medicinal uses of zinc in the Charaka Samhita
The ''Charaka Samhita'' (, “Compendium of ''Charaka''”) is a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine). Along with the ''Sushruta Samhita'', it is one of the two foundational texts of this field that have survived from ancien ...
(300 BCE).[ The ]Rasaratna Samuccaya
''Rasaratna Samuccaya'' ( Devanagari: रसरत्न समुच्चय) is an Indian Sanskrit treatise on alchemy. The text is dated between 13th to 16th century CE.
The text contains detailed descriptions of various complex metallurgica ...
(800 CE) explains the existence of two types of ores for zinc metal, one of which is ideal for metal extraction while the other is used for medicinal purpose.[ The '']Periplus Maris Erythraei
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
'' mentions weapons of Indian iron and steel being exported from India to Greece.[Prasad, chapter IX]
Early Common Era—Early Modern Era
The world's first iron pillar was the Iron pillar of Delhi
The iron pillar of Delhi is a structure high with a diameter that was constructed by Chandragupta II (reigned c. 375–415 AD), and now stands in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, India.Finbarr Barry Flood, 2003"Pillar, palimpsets, and pr ...
—erected at the times of Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II (r.c. 376-415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was the third ruler of the Gupta Empire in India, and was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta dynasty.
Chandragupta continue ...
Vikramaditya (375–413). The swords manufactured in Indian workshops find written mention in the works of Muhammad al-Idrisi (flourished 1154). Indian Blades made of Damascus steel found their way into Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.[ European scholars—during the 14th century—studied Indian casting and metallurgy technology.][
Indian metallurgy under the ]Mughal
Mughal or Moghul may refer to:
Related to the Mughal Empire
* Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries
* Mughal dynasty
* Mughal emperors
* Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia
* Mughal architecture
* Mug ...
emperor Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
(reign: 1556-1605) produced excellent small firearms. Gommans (2002) holds that Mughal handguns were stronger and more accurate than their European counterparts.
Srivastava & Alam (2008) comment on Indian coinage of the Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
(established: April 21, 1526 - ended: September 21, 1857) during Akbar's regime:[Srivastava & Alam (2008)]
Statues of ''Nataraja
Nataraja () also known as Adalvallaan () is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the divine cosmic dancer. His dance is called Tandava.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2015) The pose and artwork are described in many Hindu texts such as the ''T ...
'' and ''Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
'' were cast during the reign of the imperial Chola dynasty
The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...
(200-1279) in the 9th century.[Mondal, 2-3] The casting could involve a mixture of five metals: copper, zinc, tin, gold, and silver.[
Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, the hollow, Seamless, ]celestial globe
Celestial globes show the apparent positions of the stars in the sky. They omit the Sun, Moon, and planets because the positions of these bodies vary relative to those of the stars, but the ecliptic, along which the Sun moves, is indicated.
The ...
was invented in Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589-90 CE), and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
.[ Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce hollow, metal globes, without any ]seams
Seam may refer to:
Science and technology
* Seam (geology), a stratum of coal or mineral that is economically viable; a bed or a distinct layer of vein of rock in other layers of rock
* Seam (metallurgy), a metalworking process the joins the ends ...
, even with modern technology.[ These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of ]lost-wax casting
Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...
, and disguised plugs, in order to produce these globes.[Savage-Smith (1985)]
Colonial British Era—Republic of India
Modern steel making in India began with the setting of first blast furnace of India at Kulti in 1870 and production began in 1874, which was set up by Bengal Iron Works. The Ordnance Factory Board established Metal & Steel Factory (MSF) at Calcutta, in 1872 The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) was established by Dorabji Tata
Sir Dorabji Tata (27 August 1859 – 3 June 1932) was an Indian businessman of the British Raj, and a key figure in the history and development of the Tata Group. He was knighted in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India.
...
in 1907, as part of his father's conglomerate. By 1939 Tata operated the largest steel plant in the British Empire, and accounted for a significant proportion of the 2 million tons pig iron and 1.13 of steel produced in British India annually.
Native arms production
The first iron-cased and metal-cylinder rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
s (Mysorean rockets
Mysorean rockets were an Indian military weapon, the iron-cased rockets were successfully deployed for military use. The Mysorean army, under Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, used the rockets effectively against the British East India Company ...
) were developed by the Mysorean army of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore
The Kingdom of Mysore was a realm in South India, southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. From 1799 until 1950, it was a princely state, until 1947 in a subsidiary allia ...
in the 1780s.[ The Mysoreans successfully used these iron-cased rockets against the Presidency armies of the East India Company]during the ]Anglo-Mysore Wars
The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Kingdom of Mysore#Under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company (r ...
.["Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron the Mysoreans used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. The Mysoreans continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at ]Seringapatam
Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...
in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British." - Encyclopædia Britannica (2008), ''rocket and missile.''
Rocket warfare.jpg, A painting showing the Mysorean army fighting the British forces with Mysorean rockets, which used metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder.
Indian soldier of Tipu Sultan's army.jpg, A Mysorean soldier using his Mysorean rocket as a flagstaff (Robert Home
Robert Home (1752–1834) was a British oil portrait painter who travelled to the Indian subcontinent in 1791. During his travels he also painted historic scenes and landscapes.
Life and work
Born in Hull in the United Kingdom as the son of ...
, 1793/4).
See also
* Related topics
** Ancient iron production
** Crucible steel
** Damascus steel
** Dhar iron pillar
** Early Indian epigraphy
The earliest undisputed deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script.
If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems tha ...
** Indian coinage
** Iron pillar of Delhi
The iron pillar of Delhi is a structure high with a diameter that was constructed by Chandragupta II (reigned c. 375–415 AD), and now stands in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, India.Finbarr Barry Flood, 2003"Pillar, palimpsets, and pr ...
** Iron Age India, Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
** Rasayana
** Wootz steel
* Other similar topics
** Copper-plate grant Indian copper plate inscriptions are historical legal records engraved on copper plates in India.
Donative inscriptions engraved on copper plates, often joined by a ring with the seal of the donor, was the legal document registering the act of endo ...
** History of India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
** Indian copper plate inscriptions Indian copper plate inscriptions are historical legal records engraved on copper plates in India.
Donative inscriptions engraved on copper plates, often joined by a ring with the seal of the donor, was the legal document registering the act of endo ...
** List of Edicts of Ashoka
The following is an overview of Edicts of Ashoka, and where they are located.
Minor Rock Edict
*Kandahar, Afghanistan
*Lampaka, Afghanistan
* Bahapur, Delhi
*Bairat, near Jaipur, Rajasthan
*Bhabru, second hill at Bairat, Rajasthan
*Gujarra, ne ...
** Pillars of Ashoka
** Outline of ancient India
** Science and technology in ancient India
The history of science and technology in the Indian subcontinent begins with the prehistoric human activity of the Indus Valley Civilization to the early Indian states and empires.
Prehistory
By 5500 BCE a number of sites similar to Mehrgarh ...
** South Indian Inscriptions
References
Terminology for ayas
Other terms
*Prastarika: metal trader
*Sulbhadhatusastra: science of metals
*panchaloha, sarva loha: the five base metals (tin, lead, iron, copper, silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
)
Further reading
* Agarwal, D.P. 2000. Ancient Metal Technology and Archaeology of South Asia. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
* Biswas, Arun Kumar. 1994. Minerals and Metals in Ancient India. Vol. 1 Archaeological Evidence. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd
* Dilip K. Chakrabarti. The Early use of Iron In India. 1992. New Delhi: The Oxford University Press
Review: The Early use of Iron In India
*Chakrabarti D.K. (1996a). Copper and its Alloys in Ancient India. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Private Limited
*Mukherjee, M. 1978 Metalcraftsmen of India, Calcutta
*Rakesh Tewari, 2003
The origins of iron-working in India: new evidence from the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas
*Srinivasan, Sharda and Srinivasa Rangnathan. 2004. India's Legendary Wootz Steel. Bangalore: Tata Stee
* Vibha Tripathi, Tripathi, Vibha (Ed.). 1998. Archaeometallurgy in India. Delhi: Sharada Publishing House
Review: Archaeometallurgy
*Tripathi, Vibha. 2001. The Age of Iron in India. New Delhi: Aryan Books Internationa
* Allchin, F.R. (1979), ''South Asian Archaeology 1975: Papers from the Third International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, Held in Paris'' edited by J.E.van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Brill Academic Publishers, .
* Arnold, David (2004), ''The New Cambridge History of India: Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India'', Cambridge University Press, .
* Balasubramaniam, R. (2002), ''Delhi Iron Pillar: New Insights'', Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, .
* Ceccarelli, Marco (2000), ''International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings HMM Symposium'', Springer, .
* Craddock, P.T. etc. (1983). "Zinc production in medieval India", ''World Archaeology'', 15 (2), Industrial Archaeology.
* Drakonoff, I. M. (1991), ''Early Antiquity'', University of Chicago Press, .
* Edgerton etc. (2002), ''Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour'', Courier Dover Publications, .
* Gommans, Jos J. L. (2002), ''Mughal Warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire, 1500-1700'', Routledge, .
* Juleff, G. (1996)
"An ancient wind powered iron smelting technology in Sri Lanka"
'' Nature (journal), Nature'', 379 (3): 60–63.
* Mondal, Biswanath (2004), ''Proceedings of the National Conference on Investment Casting: NCIC 2003'', Allied Publishers, .
* Prasad, P. C. (2003), ''Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India'', Abhinav Publications, .
* Richards, J. F. etc. (2005), ''The New Cambridge History of India'', Cambridge University Press, .
* Savage-Smith, Emilie
Emilie Savage-Smith (born 20 August 1941) is an American-British historian of science known for her work on science in the medieval Islamic world and medicine in the medieval Islamic world.
Education and career
Savage-Smith was born on 20 Augus ...
(1985), ''Islamicate Celestial Globes: Their History, Construction, and Use'', Smithsonian Institution Press.
* Srinivasan, S. & Ranganathan, S.
''Wootz Steel: An Advanced Material of the Ancient World''
Indian Institute of Science.
* Srinivasan, S. (1994), ''Wootz crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in South India'', Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 5: 49–61.
* Srinivasan, S. and Griffiths, D., ''South Indian wootz: evidence for high-carbon steel from crucibles from a newly identified site and preliminary comparisons with related finds'', Material Issues in Art and Archaeology-V, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Series, Vol. 462.
* Srivastava, A.L. & Alam, Muzaffar (2008), ''India'', Encyclopædia Britannica.
* Tewari, Rakesh (2003)
"The origins of Iron Working in India: New evidence from the Central Ganga plain and the Eastern Vindhyas"
''Antiquity'', 77: 536–544.
* P. Yule–A. Hauptmann–M. Hughes. 1989 992
Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Worldwide
* Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...
The Copper Hoards of the Indian subcontinent: Preliminaries for an Interpretation, ''Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz'' 36, 193–275, ISSN 0076-2741 = http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/volltexte/2009/509/
*Tripathi, V., Chakrabarti, D. K., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2008). History of iron technology in India: From beginning to pre-modern times. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. in association with Infinity Foundation.
*Chattopadhyay, P. K., Sengupta, G., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2011). History of metals in eastern India and Bangladesh. New Delhi: Pentagon Press in association with Infinity Foundation.
*Kharakwal, J. S. (2011). Indian zinc technology in a global perspective. New Delhi: Pentagon Press, in association with Infinity Foundation.
*Balasubramaniam, R., & Infinity Foundation (Princeton, N.J.). (2008). Marvels of Indian iron through the ages. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. in association with Infinity Foundation.
*Chakrabarti D.K.''A note on the use of metals in ancient Bengal, Pratnasamiksha'' (1994) Bulletin of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of West Bengal, 2 & 3:pp. 155–158
* Metalworking History
''History from 9000 BC''
Metal Works Inventions.
*
*Craddock, P.T. ''et al.'', Zinc production in medieval India, World Archaeology, vol.15, no.2, Industrial Archaeology, 1983
* G. Juleff
''Nature'' 379 (3), 60-63 (January 1996)
*Erdosy, George: 1995; "The Prelude to urbanization", in The Archaeology of the Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of cities and states. Allchin, F. R. ''et al.'' (eds.), Cambridge 1995.
*Frawley, David (1995). Gods, Sages and Kings. 1991.Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin
*Kenoyer, J.M. (1995). Interaction Systems, Specialized crafts and Culture Change. In: Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia. Ed. George Erdosy..
* Sethna, K.D. 1992. The Problem of Aryan Origins. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
*S. R. Rao
Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao ( kn, ಶಿಕಾರಿಪುರ ರಂಗನಾಥ ರಾವ್) (1 July 1922 – 3 January 2013), commonly known as Dr. S. R. Rao, was an Indian archeologist, archaeologist who led teams credited with discoveries o ...
, Lothal (published by the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, 1985)
*Shaffer, Jim. Mathura: A protohistoric Perspective in D.M. Srinivasan (ed.), Mathura, the Cultural Heritage, 1989, pp. 171–180. Delhi.
*J.D. Verhoeven, A.H. Pendray, and W.E. Dauksch. (1998). ''The Key Role of Impurities in Ancient Damascus Steel Blades.'' Journal of Metals. 50(9). pp. 58–64
*Lynn Willies ''et al.'' 1984, Ancient Zinc and Lead Mining in Rajasthan, India. World Archaeology, Vol.16, No. 2, Mines and Quarries.
External links
The origins of Iron-working in India
* ttp://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_rs/t_rs_metal_bibliog.htm TKS Metallurgy Bibliographybr>Zinc production in Ancient India
D.P. Agrawal and Manikant Shah
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Metallurgy In The Indian Subcontinent
Bronze Age Asia
Iron Age Asia
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
*
Industrial history of India