History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c36.s1.6

v1.c36.s1.6

Usually copper-plates were hammered into the required shape or size. (Fleat, 3(2), p. 172). Traces of such hammer-blows can easily be detected on many such copper-plates. The contents of the documents were first written with ink and were scratched by an expert-writer on the plate; letter were then incised with a chisel by a goldsmith or blacksmith. In certain cases, as can be found in the southern Indian records, the copper-plate was besmeared with a layer of a mud-like substance and the writing was done with a pointed piece of iron, which was again incised by a blacksmith with a fine instrument.