Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c12.49

c12.49

A new category of craftsmen must have come into existence because of the glass manufacture on a large scale. Numerous glass objects, costly beads and bangles, have been recovered from Sirkap and Arikamedu.⁴ The spurt in the craft was caused by the adoption of glass blowing by the Indian artisans some time before the beginning of the Christian era,⁵ and there is nodoubt that the Indians had attained proficiency in glass technology.⁶ It seems that crude glass was imported from the western world and China. In any case specimens of beads found throughout India indicate that in the early centuries of the Christian era they were in most prolific use.⁷ M. G. Dikshit considers the post-Maurya period to A.D. 200 as that of affluence of glass in India;⁸ this would not have been achieved without the skill of a good many glassmakers.