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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s2.t4: The Beads at Taxila

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s2.t4

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English

The Beads at Taxila

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The beads recovered at Taxila number over 8500, a quarter of the number from the Bhir Mound, 65 p.c. from Sirkap and the rest from Dharmarajika and other sites (Marshall, 1951, 1975). A stratigraphical table of beads from Sirkap, Taxila is provided in Table 3. The inhabitants of the Bhir Mound area preferred agate, carnelian, shell, bone and glass - blue and green. In the later- day Sirkap inhabitation, we find continued uses of agate and carnelian and considerable uses of shell, glass, faience, quartz crystal, garnet, malachite etc. (vide Table 3).

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The etched carnelian beads belonged to all the three varieties as described by Beck (1933 & 1941): (a) etched in white by sodium carbonate or other alkali solutions, (b) etched in black by copper or iron nitrate on the white background or (c) on the natural colour. This confirms the continuity of the tradition of etched beads in India.

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Glazed quartz beads, found even in the Bhir Mound, became more popular during the first century A.D. Saka-Parthian period. The process of glazing consisted in heating the bead with soda until the quartz fused and flowed as a glaze over the surface.

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Spectroscopic examination made by Beck (1933) showed that the surface of the beads, thus treated, contained a large quantity of soda, though the interior was free from it. Some reagent must have been used to provide pale blue colour to the beads. Natural quartz is more beautiful when polished than when glazed; therefore, the only purpose of glazing was to provide colour on the molten surface.

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Marshall’s view (1975: Chapter 37, p. 739) is “that the real purpose of glazing was to give to quartz the appearance of beryl or aquamarine, both of which were very rare and very much prized. Pale blue would give to quartz an appearance like that of beryl or aquamarine, and this no doubt is why one of these beads from Sirkap was cut to the shape of a hexagonal cylinder, which is the natural form of beryl”.

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Pliny (N.H. 37.20) wrote that the lapidaries cut all beryls to a hexagonal from, because the colour is heightened by the reflection from the angles. Apparently, he Table 3 — Stratigraphical Table of Beads from Sirkap, Taxila (Taken from Marshall, Chapter 37, p. 734). (Not including the gold and silver specimens)

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| Material | Pre-Greek | Greek | Early Saka | Saka Parthian | Surface | Total |
| *Semi-precious stones :* | | | | | | |
| Agate | - | 1 | 10 | 111 | 3 | 125 |
| Amethyst | - | 1 | - | 10 | 1 | 12 |
| Aquamarine | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Beryl | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Carnelian | 1 | 3 | 21 | 215 | 11 | 251 |
| Carnelian, etched | - | 1 | - | 8 | - | 9 |
| Chalcedony | - | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 5 |
| Garnet | - | - | 3 | 24 | 2 | 29 |
| Jasper | - | 2 | 2 | 20 | 2 | 26 |
| Lapis-lazuli | - | 1 | 3 | 28 | 2 | 34 |
| Malachite | - | - | 7 | 40 | 2 | 49 |
| Onyx | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Quartz crystal, colourless | - | 1 | 2 | 46 | 2 | 51 |
| Quartz crystal, yellow | - | - | - | 4 | - | 4 |
| Quartz crystal, glazed | - | 1 | 2 | 39 | 1 | 43 |
| Quartz crystal, opaque | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Turquoise | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Blue serpentine | - | - | - | 5 | - | 5 |
| Red serpentine | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| | 1 | 12 | 55 | 561 | 27 | 656 |
| *Common stones:* | | | | | | , |
| Granite | - | - | - | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Limestone, white | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Limestone, nummulitic | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 |
| Marble | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Steatite(soapstone) | - | - | 2 | 7 | - | 9 |
| Shale | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 2 |
| Nondescript | - | - | 2 | 11 | - | 13 |
| | | | 5 | 28 | 2 | 35 |

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| Material | Pre-Greek | Greek | Early Saka | Saka Parthian | Surface | Total |
| Metals (excepting gold and silver): | | | | | | , |
| Copper | - | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| *Miscellaneous* | | | | | | , |
| Amber | - | - | - | 7 | - | 7 |
| Coral | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 4 |
| Shell | 1 | 16 | 224 | 1,144 | 58 | 1443 |
| Bone. | - | - | - | 11 | 2 | 13 |
| Faience | - | 13 | 7 | 198 | 4 | 222 |
| Ebony | - | - | - | 2 | - | 2 |
| Ebonite | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Jet | - | - | - | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| | 1 | 31 | 231 | 1,368 | 65 | 1696 |
| *Glass* | | | | | | , |
| Ambe | - | - | 2 | 56 | 1 | 59 |
| Black | - | 1 | - | 17 | 2 | 20 |
| Blue. | - | 8 | 27 | 203 | 9 | 247 |
| Cobalt blue | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Pale blue | - | - | 2 | - | - | 2 |
| Peacock blue | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Cream-coloured | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 |
| Green | 1 | - | 10 | 336 | 5 | 352 |
| Grey | - | - | - | 68 | - | 68 |
| Orange opaque | - | - | - | 139 | - | 139 |
| Red | - | 1 | - | 5 | - | 6 |
| Violet | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| White opaque | - | - | - | 22 | 1 | 23 |
| Yellow | - | - | - | 4 | - | 4 |
| Yellow opaque | - | 6 | 182 | 1,437 | 1670 | |
| Blotched | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | 3 |
| Multi-coloured and colourless | 1 | 9 | 31 | 474 | 18 | 533 |
| | 2 | 25 | 255 | 2,769 | 81 | 3132 |
| Terra-cotta | - | - | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| | | | | | | |
| *Total* | 4 | 69 | 549 | 4,734 | 178 | 5,534 |

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was unaware that the hexahedral was the natural form of beryl. Beryls came mainly from the Coimbatore district of Madras. Pliny also made a very significant statement: “The people of India, by colouring crystal, have found a method of imitating various precious stones, beryls in particular”.

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Intermediate in properties between glazed quartz and fused glass is faience, which is made by breaking up quartz into small grains, adding a small amount of lime, and fusing until the surface of the quartz has flowed and cemented the whole into a solid mass. The quality of the faience depends upon the fineness of the grains and the degree of fusing. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa produced some unusually fine-grained and hard faience, but most of the samples were coarser and more friable. This commoner variety was locally produced in Taxila for making beads during the later Saka-Parthian period. Compared to the Bhir Mound collection, the Sirkap collection showed much larger faience, glass and shell beads. Whereas in the former collection, the percentages of the beads made of semi-precious stone, glass and shell were 42, 32 and 14 respectively, the corresponding percentages in the later-day Sirkap became 12, 50 and 26 respectively. The figures show the spurt of artificial gem industry, mentioned in the drama Mṛcchakaṭika.

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