Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c10.1

v1.c10.1

The story of minerals and metals in ancient India is tied up with the ever unfolding history of human civilization in the sub-continent. In the nineteenth century our knowledge of the Indian history extended only up to the first millennium BC Buddhist and epic eras. With the discovery of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, the information went back to the later part of the third millennium BC. Even this date was not too ancient compared to some of the archaeologically discovered dates in the Middle East. This prompted Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1953) to make his famous observation that the Indus (Harappan) civilization is a book whose first (before third millennium BC) and last (the second millennium BC) chapters are missing. Fortunately we would be able to report through this research that parts of the ‘missing chapters’ are being gradually recovered.