The Rashtrakutas and their Times c22.8

c22.8

The fertility of the Deccan soil compares unfavourably with that of the alluvial plains of Bengal or the United Provinces, but the comparatively meagre wealth, that was available from this source, was supplemented by the metallurgical products in a much greater degree than is the case at present. Copper is mentioned as an article of export from Bharoch in the Periplus (7) and since northern India depended almost entirely on the produce of the local copper mines down to the beginning of the 17th century A.D., (8) we need not suppose that the copper exports in the first century A.D., were merely of the nature of re-exports. But it was not only in northern India that this metal was worked out; traces of more or less extensive workings of copper mines have been discovered in the districts of Cudappah, Bellary, Chanda, Buldhana, Narsingpur, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Dharwar. (9) Some of these mines are known to have been worked up right up to the time of Hyder Ali. It is, therefore, very likely that the wealth of the Deccan of our period must have been to some extent increased by the yields of these copper mines. We should not forget in this connection that copper was a much costlier metal than it is now. In the 17th century it was five times costlier than now, (10) and at about our period silver was only 3 times dearer than copper and 14 times cheaper than gold. The relative ratio of prices of gold and copper, as given by Brihaspati, is 1 : 48. (11) The present ratio of the prices of these metals is about 1 : 1500.