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Minerals and Metals Heritage of India

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Minerals and Metals Heritage of India B8-2013 NIAS Backgrounder Sharada Srinivasan Srinivasa Ranganathan MINERALS AND METALS HERITAGE OF INDIA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Bangalore, India MINERALS AND METALS HERITAGE OF INDIA Sharada Srinivasan and Srinivasa Ranganathan Heritage Studies Programme, School of Humanities National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India [email protected]; [email protected] NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES Bangalore © National Institute of Advanced Studies, 2013 Published by National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore - 560 012 Tel: 2218 5000, Fax: 2218 5028 E-mail: [email protected] NIAS Backgrounder B8-2013 ISBN 978-81-87663-77-5 Typeset & Printed by Aditi Enterprises Magadi Road, Bangalore - 23 [email protected] MINERALS AND METALS HERITAGE OF INDIA INTRODUCTION seems poised to rival the Eiffel tower in The minerals and metals heritage the public gaze. of India covers a period of over ten thousand years and extends beyond the current national boundaries of the Republic of India. Until 1500 CE the superpowers of the world were China and India. Their civilizational hold on the imagination of mankind was built on their mastery of minerals and metals. With the dawn of the twenty first century, these two nations appear poised to recapture the earlier dominance after an interregnum of five centuries. Witness China emerging as the world’s largest steel producer with over 500 million tons per annum and India racing to become the world’s second largest producer. At an iconic level, Arcelor Mittal ‘Orbit’, a spiral steel sculpture Figure 1: Arcelor Mittal ‘Orbit’, Steel sculp- designed by Indian born Anish Kapoor ture designed by Indian born Anish Kapoor and commissioned by L N Mittal for and commissioned by L N Mittal for the 2012 the 2012 London Olympics (Figure 1), London Olympics 1 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES The history of civilization is in metallurgical processes. Cyril Stanley many ways linked to the story of the Smith translated several classics into use of metals in antiquity. Metals were English so that a reasonably complete extracted and utilized in the past in view of European heritage is available. stages progressing usually from the use A Special Issue of Resonance in 2006 of native metal, to those metals which celebrates his contributions. The field of could be smelted easily from ores, to archaeometallurgy owes a special debt those which were more difficult to smelt. to the materials scientist Cyril Stanley The commonly used eight metals in Smith, a renaissance personality, who antiquity are gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, admirably brought together interests lead, zinc and mercury. This brief review in aesthetics and materials science and illustrates some of the achievements of thereby played a seminal role in enthusing ancient Indian metallurgists. Metals are many researchers in this direction. intertwined with minerals and mining. The present article builds on our earlier But as far as writings on history essays on this subject and also raises of science go, it is Joseph Needham’s issues concerning Indian heritage that monumental work and volumes on must engage our attention. science and civilization that will long remain the model. In China meticulous LITERARY EVIDENCE records were maintained. But it was The study of minerals and metals the painstaking and comprehensive heritage of Europe is facilitated by the compilations of Joseph Needham that existence of many books. One must refer brought the heritage of science and to Pliny (23- 79 CE) in his encyclopedic civilization in China to world attention. Natural History in 37 volumes. Foremost among the other historical texts is An oft-heard lament is that De Re Metallica in Latin by Georgius India does not have the equivalent of Agricola (1556 CE). His woodcuts Joseph Needham. This situation is bring home the then extant mining and being remedied now with the collective metallurgical processes alive in a vivid effort of several Indian scholars. They fashion. The translation into English have shed further light by applying in 1912 by President Hoover (a mining archaeological sciences. The Ministry engineer!) and his wife did an enormous of Culture, Government of India service to highlight medieval mining and has constituted a committee with the 2 MINERALS AND METALS HERITAGE OF INDIA National Council of Science Museums BCE is often regarded as a manual in as a hub for establishing ancient literary statecraft. It contains a great deal of evidence with the evolution of Indian information about mines and metals as science and technology. Their Science well as gems and jewellery. Both these Centre at Dharwad, Karnataka must ancient texts predate the 300 BCE be replicated across the length and text De Lapidibus by Theophrastus of breadth of India. The Indian National Greece and were in some ways more Academy of Engineering has a study advanced. group devoted to documenting Indian metallurgical heritage. Shivaprasad In terms of historical evidence we Khened has written about the need to face two problems. One is the inability propagate the knowledge of Indian to distinguish between mythology and scientific heritage. For a complete history which bedevils our efforts. On understanding of Indian heritage the the other hand the European domination reader is recommended to study the over the past few centuries has led to magisterial survey by A K Biswas and a Eurocentric view which needs to be Sulekha Biswas. redressed. Michael Ashby has been gifted in marshalling information in In this context we need to appreciate the most graphic way through the two ancient Indian texts which normally use of Ashby Maps. In his article ‘A may not attract our attention as pertaining Brief History of Materials’ he credits to metals and mines. The Ashtadhyayi Benjamin Huntsman with the invention composed by Panini in the 5th century and manufacture of crucible steel and BCE is acknowledged as a masterpiece in William Champion with the extraction linguistics. It established grammar with of zinc both in the mid 18th century!! rigour and is often compared with what However, both the making of crucible Euclid did for Geometry in his Elements. steel and extraction of zinc are among Biswas has emphasised that etymology the major Indian accomplishments of can throw light on the minerals heritage antiquity. Fortunately the situation is of India. The names for some minerals in improving, as more authors from across European languages were derived from the globe participate in reconstructing Sanskrit. Corundum from Kuruvinda the beginnings of the use of metals and Beryl from Vaidurya are examples. and alloys and taking into account Kautilya’s Arthasastra of 4th century innovations from across the world. 3 NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES THE BEGINNINGS AND THE migrations across continents. Dating STONE AGE techniques are giving us new scientific The diffusion of technology is windows through which the past can be crucial to human development. This was captured. The material history of India as true in the stone age as it is now. The is undergoing revision. stone tools are examples of a Palaeolithic technology called the Acheulian. It was As early as 7000 BCE, a Neolithic invented in Africa by Homo erectus ceramic culture flourished in Mehrgarh about 1.6m years ago and then spread in Balochistan. This was followed by to populations of erectus in other the Indus Valley Civilization from 3300 parts of the world. The speed of that BCE, ranked as one of the four great spread, however, is unclear—or, rather, civilizations of antiquity along with those was unclear. In a paper in Science 2011 Shanti Pappu of the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, in Chennai, and her colleagues have suggested that the humans carrying this technology from Africa reached India far faster than had been thought. The tools in question come from Athirampakkam, in Tamil Nadu, and have been dated to at least 1m years ago, probably 1.5m and possibly 1.6m (Figure 2). DNA analysis provides a genographic atlas to follow human Figure 2. Stone tools from Athirampakkam, Figure 3. The celebrated statue of a dancing Tamil Nadu dated to 1 m years girl from Mohenjodaro (Courtesy : Shanthi Pappu) (Courtesy : John Marr) 4 MINERALS AND METALS HERITAGE OF INDIA in Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. The antiquity gold would usually have been artefacts from this period include the collected by panning alluvial sands from celebrated statue of a dancing girl (Figure placer deposits. However India has the 3) from Mohenjodaro from the Indus distinction that the deepest ancient mines Valley. This is one of the earliest examples in the world for gold come from the of bronze casting by the lost wax process. Maski region of Karnataka with carbon dates from the mid 1st millennium GOLD BCE. The metal was continued to be Early reference to gold is to be mined by the eleventh century kings of found in the Rig Veda Samhita. In all the South India, the Vijayanagara emperors sacrificial rites golden vessels were said to from 1336 to 1560 and later by Tipu have been used. The Arthasastra refers Sultan. Renewed interest in the Kolar to gold having “the colour of lotus, soft, Goldfields occurred towards the end of lustrous and not producing any type of the nineteenth century. The ancient gold sound”. The Harappan civilization had workings, which may be 200 years old and many gold objects such as those found the workings of Tipu Sultan were located at Mohenjodaro. Some analyses reported by Captain Warren in 1802 and started in an admixture of gold with silver which 1864 by Michael F. Lavelle. John Taylor & might suggest that this gold originated Company did much of the prospecting. in Kolar in Karnataka. Silappadikaram, The Kolar and Hutti gold mines have the Tamil Classic by the prince Ilango been under continuous, if somewhat Adigal, dated to the early Christian era chequered, development.
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