History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s2.t3.7

v1.c39.s2.t3.7

We propose that the situations as enunciated in the previous paragraph must have ripened prior to the first and, a millennium later, the second urbanization in India. The Yajurveda referred to not only gold, silver, copper, bronze, tin and lead, but also the newly discovered iron, the black metal - *śyāma* or *kṛṣṇāyasa* (*Sukla Yajurveda* 18.13). *Bṛhadāraṇyak Upaniṣad* (3.9.18) mentioned a tong handling hot charcoal, and in *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (*Śat.Br*), we find references of leather bellow blowing air into a furnace, blow-pipe used by the smelter and so on (1.1.2.7, 1.6.3.16). *Śat.Br* also described a large number of iron implements and the emergence of gold-based money economy: ‘with gold they do nothing, and yet it is an object of respect’ (5.5.5.16). Even lead was used as a medium of barter (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2. 10-12). Heavy pieces of lead were used in the art of weaving. Barley and rice were traded for lead (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2.10); sheep’s wool was also used as a medium of barter for obtaining grain and other commodities (*Śat. Br.* 12.7.2.10).