An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c15.s1.16

v1.c15.s1.16

Apart from the nature of actual furnaces used in the process of bead-making there are certain other distinctive aspects of the technique of manufacture of beads in vogue right from the times of the Harappa culture. For instance beads were subjected to heating in order to accentuate the colours in natural stones. The long cylindrical circular beads from Mohenjo-daro showing a bright red colour is supposed to have been the result of the process of heating. Some of the steatite [6.14] beads of the Indus sites also seem to have been subjected to fire-treatment. At UJJAIN the tinting of carnelian and agate is evidenced not only by the find of a furnace but also by the find near by of an earthen pot stuffed with agate and carnelian beads and with its mouth closed with a tight-fitting lid of white agate. Whereas at Ujjain this evidence comes from *c.* 2nd century B.C. levels, at KAUṆḌINYAPURA in Maharashtra it is from *c.* 2nd century A.D. horizons. After tinting the next stage was that of fashioning the core. As is done at present at Khambat, a large iron nail embedded in a slanting position in the ground and a horn hammer are used for this purpose. How this was done at the early Chalcolithic sites in India is not known. The third stage is that of polishing in which the flaked nodules are held against the rotating surface of an emery wheel which is prepared in a mixture of *kurunda* stones embedded in hard wax and lac. At present unpolished beads are placed in a leather pouch which is made to revolve round and round and the beads get their polish by friction with one another. The high polish on the agate and carnelian beads of the Harappa sites and sites of the Mauryan period was achieved with some such method. The polish on the agate and carnelian beads of the Mauryan period has no parallel.