The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.s1.2

v1.c15.s1.2

The prehistoric archaeology of India has not attracted the attention which it deserves, and many interesting problems connected with the earlier cultures and their relation to the culture of the Rigveda remain to be solved; but there is a general agreement as to the succession of cultural strata in Northern and Southern India. The discoveries of ancient implements seem to prove that in the North the Stone Age is separated from the Iron Age by a Copper Age; while in the South no such transitional stage has been observed—implements of stone are followed without a break by implements of iron. Bronze, it appears, is not found anywhere in India before the Iron Age. If these facts may be held to be established, we must conclude that the chief metal of the Rigveda, *ayas* (Latin *aes*), was copper; and the absence of a Copper Age in Southern India would seem to indicate that the earlier inhabitants generally were still in the Stone Age at the time when the Āryans brought with them the use of copper. Iron was probably not known in the age of the Rigveda; but it undoubtedly occurs in the period immediately following when it is known to the Yajurveda and Atharvaveda as *çyāma ayas* or 'black copper.' Its use was introduced by Indo-Āryan colonisation into Southern India where the Stone Age of culture still prevailed.