Prof RK Dube
Man and metals have an
age-old relationship. Different periods of early human civilisation have been
named after metals. The attributes of gold influenced the mind and heart of
Indians so much so that they conferred upon the supreme spirit the designation
of hirnyagarbha. It was so called, because he remains in a golden egg as an
embryo. The two important sources for the history of Indian metallurgy are
archaeological excavations and literary evidence.
Although a considerable
amount of information on this subject from the study of archaeological finds is
available, literary evidence has not been studied to the extent it deserves.
Unique information related to metals and metallurgy is available in different
Sanskrit texts beginning with Vedic texts to medieval and pre-modern texts.
There are both direct and indirect types of references. An attempt has been
made here to give a glimpse of some such references.
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| Fig 1 |
Figure 1- Geological map of northern areas of Pakistan showing concentration of gold in rock samples. from the report of Integration of Geological, Geochemical and Remote Sensing Data for Finding Source Rocks for Gold in the Northern Areas of Pakistan
The Rigveda has widely
referred to hiranya, which is the oldest Sanskrit word for gold. It has also
mentioned products made from gold, such as water vessel, necklace and visor.
Chariots decorated with gold have also been mentioned. The Rigveda (10.75.8)
mentioned that the river Sindhu (Indus) contains gold. The word hiranyayi was
used for the river. Another Rigveda hymn (8.26.18), states that the path of the
river Sindhu contains gold, and the word used for it is hiranyavartanih. It is
interesting to note that Sayana translated this word as hiranmayobhayakula,
i.e., both banks containing gold. The above hymns are some of the earliest
indirect references to the alluvial placer gold deposits in India. The river
Sindhu was an important source of gold in ancient times. It is interesting to
note that the references for the availability of alluvial placer gold in the
river Sindhu are also reported in modern times. Tucci reported in 1977 that
“there were near the Indus (Sindhu) source, as there are even now, great mines
of gold in the region of the Mānasarovar and in Thokjalung.” Further, in the
itinerary in Khotanese Saka from Gilgit to Chilas (written between 958-972 AD)
the Indus is called Ysarnijittāji — the golden river, which is not a mere
poetic attribute, but a reality.
Gold obtained from the
river Jambu was called jambunada and that from the river Ganga was called
gangeya. These were also, alluvial placer gold. The Pali text Anguttara Nikaya
narrated the process of the recovery of gold dust or particles from alluvial
placer gold deposits in allegorical form.
The Mahabharata
referred to pipilika gold (ants’ gold). Heaps of this type of gold was
presented to the king Yudhishthira at the time of the rajasuya yagna ceremony.
Pipilika gold was powdery in nature and of high purity. It was obtained by
panning the auriferous soil of ant hills formed by ants or termites as a part
of their nature on the land containing placer gold deposits and hence the name ants’
gold. Kautilya described a variety of gold called rasaviddha, which was
naturally occurring dissolved gold in liquid form. He stated that one pala (a
measure) of this solution converts one hundred palas of silver or copper into
gold, which refers to the cementation of gold on the surface of metals like
silver and copper. A similar type of dissolved gold known as hatakaprabhasa was
mentioned in Gandavyuha sutra. Kalidas also mentioned such gold solutions and
termed it kanaka rasa. It is astonishing to note how people recognised such
gold solutions in the past.
Native gold is
invariably by no means a pure metal. It contains up to 20 per cent silver,
copper, iron, lead, bismuth, platinum group metals and other metals, as
impurities. Thus native gold would have different colours depending upon the
nature and amount of impurities present. It is logical to assume that the
different colours of native gold were a major driving force for the development
of gold refining process. Although evidence of gold refining is available in
Vedic texts in an allegory form, it was the Arthashastra of Kautilya, which
presented it in detail.
Gold refining was a
two-stage process. The first stage was the melting of impure gold along with
lead, which removed base metal impurities, but not noble metals like silver.
The second stage was to heat impure gold sheets with the soil of Sindhu state,
which contained salt. The sodium chloride present in the soil reacted with
silver and the resulting silver chloride absorbed in the surrounding soil. This
was a solid state process, which involved diffusion of silver in impure gold
and the subsequent formation of silver chloride at the gold-soil interface.
It is important to note
that Kautilya stated that the starting sheet of impure gold must be thin, as
this would improve the kinetics of the solid state refining. Usage of gold in
granular form, as was the case at least in part in the Sardis refinery of the
Lydian kingdom of Anatolia, would result in lower yield.
Another important metal
referred to in Rigveda is ayas. It has a shining appearance. Ayas has different
meanings in different periods. In early Vedic period, it means either copper or
copper alloys. One of the important products made from ayas, as stated in the
Rigveda, was the weapon of Indra called vajra. It was made by the process of
sinchan (casting). In the later Vedic period ayas or karshnayas means iron. In
the Atharvaveda, rajata (silver), trapu (tin) and sisa (lead) have been
mentioned.
Kautilya also described
the method for refining silver, which was similar to the first stage process
used in gold refining. Further, Kautilya stated a very interesting qualitative
test for ensuring the purity of cast silver ingots. According to it, the
surface of the cast pure silver ingots should exhibit an appearance of chulika,
i.e., projections similar to a cock’s comb. In other words, the top surface of
the pure silver ingot has a rising appearance at certain places. In fact, this
is a reference to the spitting and sprouting behaviour of silver. Oxygen
dissolves readily in molten silver. Molten silver dissolves approximately 20
times its own volume of oxygen near the melting point at one atmosphere
pressure of oxygen. Just below the melting point, the solid silver can dissolve
oxygen only up to half its own volume under similar conditions.
The large difference in
solubility of oxygen in the liquid and solid state causes the evolution of
oxygen during solidification of molten silver. Bubbles of oxygen are then given
off, resulting in “spitting” at the free surface. As a result, liquid silver
from the interior is ejected on the surface of the ingot and a shape similar to
a cock’s comb is formed on the top surface after solidification. This author
carried out the experimental replication of the formation of chulika on a small
size cast pure silver (see picture). If silver contains base metals such as
lead and copper, then the dissolved oxygen would combine with it to form
respective oxides. In such a situation, the phenomenon of spitting would not be
observed and the surface would be smooth.
In this context, it is
interesting to note that the law governing the solubility of gases in metals,
known as Sievert’s law, came into existence only in the early 20th century.
However, ancient Indians recognised the practical aspect of Sievert’s law in
judging the purity of silver.
There is a rich
Sanskrit terminology for metals, from which interesting information on history
of metallurgy can be derived. Only a few uncommon terms would be cited. Silver
has a tendency to tarnish. It tarnishes readily when exposed to atmosphere
containing sulphur, and looks blackish. Due to this characteristic, an uncommon
Sanskrit name of silver is durvarna. The copper produced in Nepal was called
naipalika or nepalaka, and was of high purity. Tin recovered from lead-tin
alloy was called nagaja, i.e., “that obtained from naga (lead)”. Similarly, tin
recovered from the impure gold containing tin was called svarnaja. India was
not rich in tin metal. Our ancestors were conscious of this problem and also
exploited secondary sources for tin recovery. The presence of lead adversely
affects the characteristics of gold and hence it was also called as hemaghna.
The
Rasaratnasamuchchaya described three types of ferrous materials, viz. munda, tiksna
and kanta. When iron ore pieces are reduced by charcoal in solid state, iron
blocks containing porosity results. For this reason the reduced iron blocks are
also called sponge iron blocks. Any useful products can only be obtained from
this material after removing the residual porosity by hot forging. The hot
forged sponge iron blocks are also termed as wrought iron. Munda was wrought
iron. As the name suggests tiksna has superior hardness as compared to munda.
Tiksna represented crucible steel made by liquid metallurgy and also probably
further carburised wrought iron. Special varieties of iron were called kanta.
An exciting example of wrought iron produced in ancient India is the world
famous Delhi Iron Pillar. It was erected in the present position in Delhi in
the 5th century AD by king Chandra Varman. However, the engraved Sanskrit
inscription suggests that it was probably brought here from elsewhere in the
Gupta period. The average composition (wt%) of the wrought iron of the pillar
is- Fe- 0.15 C- 0.05 Si- 0.05 Mn- 0.25 P- 0.005 S- 0.05 Ni- 0.03 Cu- 0.02 N.
The most significant aspect of the pillar is that there is no sign of any
corrosion, in spite of the fact that it has been exposed to the atmosphere for
about 1,600 years.
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| Delhi Iron Pillar |
Another striking
feature of the pillar is its manufacturing technology. It was made by
successive hot forging of directly reduced sponge iron blocks produced from the
solid state reduction of iron ore by charcoal, in a die. The joint lines that
have not been completely removed by forging are clearly visible on the pillar.
This author discussed this aspect in detail and opined that this procedure is
basically very similar to current metal powder forging techniques, with a
difference that the latter is not usually used to make a long product by
joining pieces together (Powder Metallurgy, 1990, 33(2), 119). In both the
cases, hot forging in a die is done not only to give the required shape, but
also to remove the residual porosity present in the starting material.
Indian crucible steel
was a celebrated material worldwide. It was usually produced by simultaneous
carburisation and melting of wrought iron in closed crucibles. Valmiki referred
to it by the term “refined iron”. Kautilya termed it vratta, because it was of
circular shape. Dr Helenus Scott sent specimens of a variety of crucible steel,
available in Mumbai area, to Sir Joseph Banks, the then president of the Royal
Society, London, for experimental investigation in 1794. He referred to this
steel as wootz in his letter. Recent researches by this author have revealed
that the actual name of this steel was the Sanskrit utsa, which was erroneously
transliterated in Roman script as wootz by Scott. James Stodart, fellow of the
Royal Society, did extensive work on this steel and mastered its hot forging.
Stodart was so overwhelmed with its quality that he mentioned the name utsa in
Devanagari script on his trade card, along with a note that it is to be
preferred over the best steel in Europe. It was named utsa because it had a
characteristic of oozing out of low melting point liquid phase when heated to
moderate temperatures.
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| Weapons made of Wootz steel |
Historically brass, an
alloy of copper and zinc, was known to man much earlier than they were able to
extract zinc from its ore on a large scale. In early period zinc was designated
as sattva of zinc ore. In medieval period, it was designated as yashada in
Sanskrit. Zinc oxide, known as pushpanjan, has been referred to in Charak
Samhita. Rasaratnakar (second century AD) provides the earliest documentary
evidence for the cementation process for brass making and
reduction-distillation process for zinc extraction. Rasarnava and
Rasara-tnasamuchchaya described a typical crucible, known as vrintak, having a
shape similar to that of a long variety of brinjal, to be used for making the
reduction-distillation chamber. The basic principle of the process resembles
that of the largescale 12th century industrial process for zinc extraction
uncovered at Zawar near Udaipur. It is a unique discovery and the retorts used
at Zawar are similar to the vrintak crucible.
The Mahabharata and
some Puranas have referred to ferrous arrowheads, which were subjected to
‘tailadhauta’ treatment. Valmiki used this terminology in the context of battle
axe. Some of the commentaries of Ramayana have defined tailadhauta as the
process used for hardening (of ferrous objects). Clearly, this terminology was
used in the sense of oil quench-hardening of ferrous materials.
Manasollas, written in
1131 AD, gives detailed information on fine quality metal image casting by
madhuchchhishta vidhan (lost wax process). Both sushira (hollow) and ghana
(solid) images were cast. Although the documentary evidence is of a later
period, it had been used since a very long time ago. The famous bronze dancing
girl from Mohenjodaro was made by this process. Shilparatna (later part of 16th
century) has mentioned the process of making fine gold powder from thin gold
leaves for painting applications. The powder produced would have a flaky shape,
which gives higher covering area per unit mass.
In the Indian
tradition, people with expertise in technical disciplines were highly regarded.
This is reflected in a hymn of Atharvaveda, in which karmar (ironsmith or
metalsmith in general) has been called manishi, i.e., a wise or learned person.
Further, it has been stated in the Kavyamimansa (10th century AD) that
goldsmith, ironsmith and similar other people should also be invited by kings
in the kavya-pariksa sabha, i.e., literary meetings organised to judge the
scholarship of poets.
Metal technology, for
that matter, all other technologies, are human creations shaped historically by
context. The examples discussed here illustrate how ancient Indians solved
metallurgical challenges, which helped in the development of Indian metallurgy
and also the scientific and technological temper in the people of those times.
It is understandable
that most of the metal technologies of the past are not relevant in present
times. However, examples from the past can re-energise us towards encouraging
local innovations and enterprise at all levels. Finally, it is clear that Vedic
and classical Sanskrit texts are knowledge texts, and the study of Sanskrit has
value because Sanskrit is not just a classical language, but a vehicle of
discovering our knowledge inheritance and assessing its contemporary relevance.
(Prof RK Dube is former
professor and head of the department of materials science and engineering at
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur)
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