Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c15.s1.2

v1.c15.s1.2

Rajasthan abounds in various types of rocks which were used even in proto-historic periods, as for instance, schist, sandstone, quartzite, quartz and grit. Different varieties of schist are to be found. These rocks locally occur in the Archaean formations around Udaipur. The main stone objects are stone balls, hammer-stones, rubber-stones, mullers, mace-heads and saddle querns. The saddle querns at Ahar were generally made on irregular flat pieces of locally available rocks like quartzite, sandstone, and schist. Even the softer varieties like mica, schist have been utilized at times. These querns were used not only for crushing the grains but for preparing curry paste also.