The Mauryan Polity c13.s10.1

c13.s10.1

Prof. Stein agrees with Jolly when he says that Megasthenes mentions only silver, gold, bronze, iron, and tin, whilst the list of Kauṭalya includes more metals like copper, lead, *vaikarantaka*, mercury, and brass, and shows that that period must have been an infant stage of knowledge with regard to metals whilst that of the Kauṭalīya shows a highly developed knowledge in both chemical and technical sciences. Stein concludes thus⁴:—"The enumeration of these metals with details as to shape, colour, and quality, ability to work upon the metals, and finally, the many kinds of officials for almost every branch of the mining industry, overseers and inspectors of mines, of useful metals (lohādhyakṣa), of coinage, of salt, of gold, of goldsmith, and legal regulations with regard to private management,—all these demonstrate that in this field there is a higher culture than in the Greek reports commencing with Megasthenes. Undoubtedly here we find a more recent epoch." The above conclusions are untenable for the following reasons:—