Studies in Indian Art c8.s1.6

c8.s1.6

The Indus Valley people seem to have exploited to the utmost the possibilities of these twofold approaches by land and sea. In India they obtained the yellow stone from Jaisalmer; the fine green amazonite not from the Nilgiries as was once thought but from the Hirapur plateau north of Ahmedabad (as pointed out by Wheeler); amethyst from the Deccan trap; copper from Khetri mines in Rajasthan; tin for making bronze from Hazaribag, the only Indian source with extant old workings. Lapis lazuli used by them had its source in Badakhshan mines in north-east Afghanistan; turquoise in Khorasan in north-eastern Persia; and jadeite (hard jade) in the Pamirs and eastern Turkistan. The supply of lime-stone for carving images etc. was obtained from Sukkur; gypsum for making lime-mortar from the Kirthar hills; and marble from Rajputana. Gold used for ornaments, fillets and beads came probably from South India, or in the form of washed gold from Central Asia through trade channels. Silver used for vessels and ornaments may have been obtained from Afghanistan and Persia where it is seperated from lead. They were thus in contact with south India, east India, Rajputana, Gujrat, and western Afghanistan through the Bolan Pass, and with Persia through the Makran desert in Baluchistan. Their contact with Mesopotamia is proved by the discovery of seals with pictographic script at Ur, Kish, Susa, Lagash and Tell Asmar, together with several art motifs, as knobbed pottery, vessels with mat-pattern, small boxes with compartments, and some special kinds of beads, etc.