History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s4.2

v1.c39.s4.2

Several centuries earlier, the Mauryas had taken iron plough-share to the South and initiated large scale agriculture and urbanization. Patañjali of the Suṅga era described how the crude beryl mineral was being mined in he Valavaya mountains and brought to the city of Vidura (near Mysore) for processing (*Mahābhāṣya*, on Aṣṭadhyāyī 4.3.84). Mathura had acquired special celebrity for its manufacture of śataka, a special kind of cloth, but it was yet to become a transit centre for silk goods to be transmitted to the south and west Deccan and then to Rome.