Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c18.13

v1.c18.13

In chapter 2, we have reported Jarrige’s discovery of the seventh to fifth millennium BC copper artefacts from Mehrgarh. Around 4000 BC, smelting of copper was well-known at Mehrgarh as well as in Tal-i-Iblis in Mashiz Valley of Iran. (Caldwell, 1967) When D.P. Agrawal precluded independent origin of copper metallurgy in India and conceded that the metallurgical know-how had diffused to India of the Harappan era from Iran (Agrawal, 1971: 232 and 239), Jarrige’s discovery of Mehrgarh (1979) was yet to be made. Now we may propose that the impetus to the copper metallurgical practices in the Harappan civilization came from within the Indian sub-continent and the Indo-Iranian borderlands.