Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s6.t16: Plasma
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s6.t16
- Language
- English
Plasma
v1.c11.s6.t16.1
The bright green and more or less translucent variety of chalcedony, known as plasma, has been noticed in the beds of the Krishna, Godavari and Bhima rivers. It seems just as likely however to have been obtained from Rajputana.
v1.c11.s6.t16.2
TIN The best known tin locality in Asia is the Malay peninsula, including the Tenasserim Division of Southern Burma. Here cassiterite occurs in considerable quantities. Cassiterite is also known to occur in the Palanpur state (Bombay presidency) and in Dharwar district (Bombay) and is reported to have been found in Rewa Kantha. In the Hazaribagh district of Bihar and Orissa, tin ore is found in more noticeable quantity. Tin is known to occur in the Kuh Banan and the Kara Dagh in Persia. So it would be difficult to surmise from which of these sources, if any, the tin found in Mohenjo-Daro was obtained. (MS-II, 682)
v1.c11.s6.t16.3
BITUMEN It is found near Isa Khel on the right bank of the Indus in India. Although the quantity is small, but the deposit may have been a little greater in the older times. The nearest bitumen deposits to Mohenjo-Daro would be those of Baluchistan. At Khattan in the Marri hills N.E. of Sibi, there is a considerable deposit. Even a large deposit of bitumen occurs at Hit on the Euphrates and was known to the old Babylonians. So it is difficult to say which of these is more likely to have been the source for the Mohenjo-Daro specimens. (MS-II, 682)
v1.c11.s6.t16.4
RED OCHRE Red ochre is of wide occurrence in India, especially in Central India and the Central Provinces. In the latter province the deposits of Jauli, Jabalpur district are well-known and still explored. Extensive beds occur in the Kaimur plateau and many places on the Deccan trap are characterized by the mineral. Amongst the deposits nearest to Sind are Lakhpat in Kutch and those of Padvania and elsewhere in the Rewa Kantha agency. The red ochre of Hormuz and other Persian gulf islands is worth mention on account of its brilliant colour, which must have attracted the very early notice in human civilisation. Its association with salt and gypsum made it more conspicuous. Even today it is dug out in large quantities and shipped to India for use as a pigment. Hormuz, Bu Musa and Halul are the principal islands from which this material is obtained, and the Mohenjo-Daro supplies might well have come by sea from any one or all of them. (MS-II, 683)
v1.c11.s6.t16.5
BASALT It is one of the commonest rocks in India, and covers a total area exceeding 100,000 sq miles in the Bombay presidency (including Kathiawar and the Kutch), Hyderabad, and central India. The Mohenjo-Daro material might have come from the Kathiawar peninsula, but basalt was even nearer at hand than that, namely in the Western Sind. An important band of this rock, from 40 to 90 ft thick, stretches for about 22 miles from the Ranikot to Jakhwari, and may well have been used by the ancient inhabitants. (MS-II, 683)