|
Metals and Metallurgy in Ancient India
 Some useful links and resources online
March 2017
Since ancient times India has had a tradition of the use of various kinds metals, some of which were available locally while some brought from faraway places. Indians used various types of techniques such as mining, smelting and welding to shape metals into objects of use. The profession of iron work itself lead to the creation of social groups or castes such lohars who specialize in metal work. Here are some useful links, many of them research-based:
• The Iron Pillar at Delhi, T.R.Anantharaman, Iron and Steel Heritage of India
http://eprints.nmlindia.org/5796/1/1-28.pdf
• Indian Sword Revealed as Master-Crafted, NewHistorian
http://newhistorian.com/indian-sword-revealed-master-crafted/2954/
• Meeting the blacksmiths in bullcok carts of Rajasthan, N.W. India. - A Dying culture
https://steemit.com/travel/@ganpati23/meeting-the-blacksmiths-in-bullcok-carts-of-rajasthan-n-w-india-a-dying-culture-part-1
• Lost Nomads (National Geographic). India’s 80 million wanderers are torn—clinging to centuries-old traditions while the modern world strips their identities away.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2010/02/nomads/lancaster-text
• Agaria (Social group)
http://peoplegroupsindia.com/profiles/agaria/
• The Ethnographic Narration of Gadulia Lohar Tribe of Udaipur, Rajasthan: With the Special Reference to the Ethnoarchaeological Perspective and Traditional Iron Tool Technology
http://ancient-asia-journal.com/articles/10.5334/aa.12321/
•A note on ancient zinc-smelting in India and China, Vijaya Deshpande,
Indian Journal of History of Science.
http://new1.dli.ernet.in/data1/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5f_275.pdf
• Characterization of rust on ancient Indian iron, R.Balasubramaniam et al.
Current Science, Dec. 2003.
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~bala/journalpaper/journal/journalpaper_41.pdf
• Aspects of Powder Technology in Ancient and Medieval India. By R. K. Dube.
Powder Metallurgy 2013; 33(2), 119-125.
http://maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/pom.1990.33.2.119
• Ancient metal-mirror making in South India, by S. G. K. Pillai, R. M. Pillai,
A. D. Damodaran.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03222791?LI=true
• History of Metallurgy and Mining in India, Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
https://zum.de/whkmla/sp/0910/florida/florida1.html
• History of metallurgy in South Asia (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_metallurgy_in_South_Asia
• Ancient Indian Metallurgy (IGNCA)
http://ignca.nic.in/vedic_heritage_present_metallurgy.htm
• The Metallurgical Heritage of India (IISC)
http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~wootz/heritage/Ind-heritage.html
• History of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent
https://revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=History%20of%20metallurgy%20in
%20the%20Indian%20subcontinent&item_type=topic
• The Rise and Fall of Ancient India’s Iron and Steel Metallurgy
http://ghadar.in/gjh_html/?q=content/rise-and-fall-ancient-india
%E2%80%99s-iron-and-steel-metallurgy
• A Brief History of Materials: 1. Metallurgical Heritage of India
https://materialiaindica.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/a-brief-history-
of-materials1metallurgical-heritage-of-india/
• A Model for Understanding Ancient Indian Iron Metallurgy, K. T. M. Hegde
https://jstor.org/stable/2800318
• The origins of Iron-working in India, Rakesh Tewari
New evidence from the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas
http://archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/iron-ore
• The Lost-Wax Casting of Icons, Utensils, Bells, and Other Items in South India
http://tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0210/Pillai-0210.html
• Archaeo-metallurgy of Indus civilisation (Book review, The Hindu)
http://thehindu.com/books/archaeometallurgy-of-indus-civilisation/article2913312.ece
• Mystery behind the Iron Pillar of Qutab Minar
http://speakingtree.in/allslides/mystery-behind-the-iron-pillar-of-qutab-minar
• India’s Magical Ancient Pillar. The Delhi Pillar Is a Genuine Out-of-Place Artifact
http://atlantisrisingmagazine.com/article/indias-magical-ancient-pillar/
• India’s legendary wootz steel—An advanced material of the ancient world
Sharada Srinivasan and Srinivasa Ranganathan (Orient BlackSwan)
http://orientblackswan.com/BookDescription?isbn=978-81-7371-721-5&id=32&t=c
• Metallurgy (Ancient Indians)
https://ancientindians.in/technology/ancient-indian-metallurgy/
• Two thousand years of iron smelting in the Khasi hills, Pawel Prokop and Ireneusz Suliga
http://cherrapunjee.com/cherrapunjee-rain/two-thousand-years-of-iron-smelting-in-the-khasi-hills/
• Ancient Gold Mining Activities in India - An Overview, A.K. Grover and M.K. Pandit,
Iranian Journal of Earth Sciences http://ijes.mshdiau.ac.ir/article_522929.html
• Wootz crucible steel: a newly discovered production site in South India
Sharada Srinivasan
http://pia-journal.co.uk/article/download/pia.60/142/
• Copper in Ancient India, Panchanan Neogi, The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta (1918)
http://arxiv.iacs.res.in:8080/jspui/handle/10821/917
• Metallurgy of Iron and Steel Making and Blacksmithy in Ancient India,
B. Prakash, Indian Journal of History of Science, 26(4), 1991.
• ANCIENT INDIAN IRON AND STEEL : AN ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL STUDY,
B PRAKASH, Indian Journal of History of Science, 46.3 (2011)
http://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol46_3_1_BPrakash.pdf
• The Primacy of India in ancient brass and zinc metallurgy, Arun K. Biswas,
Indian Journal of History of Science, 28(4), 1993.
Some of the above references need to be searched online to get the correct file/page.
Please report if you find any dead links. This site is constantly in progress. |
