History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c12.16

v1.c12.16

It may not be entirely fanciful to presume that digging the earth for fire meant mining for coal. It is evident from the ruins of smithies, furnaces and slag heaps very close to the coal regions in eastern part of the country that coal was commercially used much before the sixteenth century.