Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c22.6

c22.6

*Iron* Seeing that a knowledge of iron is so ancient and widespread in India, it is not surprising *smelting* to find it also in Ceylon, which is, strictly speaking, no more than a part of India. The oldest specimens of iron in Ceylon are probably those found by Mr. Parker at Tissa-mahārāma.* Heaps of slag which are found in every district show how widespread an industry this smelting of iron has been. At present the industry survives only near Balangoda, where a certain amount of iron is made as a service rent, and where there still live two very old men who understand the method of conversion to steel. With these two men the latter craft will become a thing entirely of the past. One can hardly help regretting the decay of so ancient and interesting a craft; nor is the change quite unmixed gain, for comparatively little of the European iron is of the fine quality of Indian. But with Mr. Vredenburg,† “I doubt whether the iron industry can ever be revived in India by smelting according to the native methods. . . . To try to smelt iron on a small scale at the present day is probably equivalent, from an economic point of view, to attempting to prepare galvanized or corrugated iron, or lead pipes, or soda water bottles on a small scale or by manual labour.” The steel industry in Ceylon is already dead, for steel has never been made of late years in the ordinary way of trade, and the old men who make it cannot live many years more; a few families, however, are still partially occupied in iron smelting, and though it is likely that even by them it will be abandoned sooner or later, I see no reason why the smelters should be discouraged or laid under any unnecessary disability in connection with obtaining wood for charcoal, or otherwise.