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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c18.s5: The Use of Copper in the Iron Age of India

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c18.s5

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The Use of Copper in the Iron Age of India

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The historical period in India is also associated with the increasing use of iron. Carburised iron was found to be cheaper and better than bronze in making weapons and agricultural implements. Naturally the use of copper was diverted towards the other purposes. We have already mentioned about Sohagura copper plate of the Maurya period. The Sue Vihar inscription of Kaniṣka (1st century AD) and the Taxila plates are also amongst the earliest of copper plates in India. Vincent Smith referred to a set of 31 sheets of copper used for writing copper inscriptions in South India. The tradition of inscribing on tāmrapatra (copper sheet) survived in India till the nineteenth century. Making copper wire had been an ancient tradition. Mitathal yielded a copper wire (98.57 per cent copper 1.13 per cent iron) from the Sothi-Harappan level. It is rectangular in cross-section and 2 mm in thickness. Taxila also produced wires for musical instruments. Copper and bronze mirrors were found in Taxila, Rairh, Basarh, Brahmapuri and many other sites corresponding to the period 200 BC-AD 200. (Margabandhu, 1974) From the Vedic references it is presumed that copper mirrors were produced and used even in the earlier eras.

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The earliest coins were punch-marked coins made of gold, silver and copper. In a number of silver punch-marked coins copper was used for alloying and debasing. Bhardwaj (1979: 140-42) mentioned that Caley had fixed the chronology of Pārthian kings, gradually increasing the copper content of silver coins, and proposed that a similar approach could be taken to establish the chronology of punch-marked coins in India. Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra recommended 11 parts of silver (68.75 % of the total), 4 parts of copper (25 %) and 1 part (6.25%) of any other base metal such as iron, tin, lead or antimony, for preparing silver coins. In some 400 BC punch-marked coins, the percentage of copper went up to 70-72 per cent and that of silver came down to 22-28 per cent. This clearly reflec-ted the growing shortage of silver in the country. Copper, though considered as less precious, was more abundant and freely used in making coins and various alloys.

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Utensils were made of copper and its alloys such as bell-metal, (later) brass etc. The Harappan tradition of making vessels, which was apparently lost or latent in the Chalcolithic and Copper Hoard Cultures, was revived during the ‘second’ (Historical) phase of urbanisation in India. Suśruta, Yājñavalkya, Manu etc. mentioned about the religious and ceremonial use of utensils made of copper and its alloys, and also the various recipes for cleaning them. Megasthenes mentioned that “vessels of Indian copper, set with precious stones, contributed to the brilliancy of the public ceremonies during Chandragupta’s region”. One remarkable ancient copper *loṭā* was found in 1857 in the village of Kundla in the Kangra district, Punjab; there was an inscribed scene running round it which represents Prince Siddhartha going in a royal procession in a chariot. The *loṭā* has been variously dated as belonging to first century BC or third century AD. Caskets for preservation of relics used to be made of copper and its alloys.

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Neogi (1917, 1979: 21-22) referred to the big solid copper bolt found in the Rāmpurwā Aśoka Pillar near the Nepalese border. It was evidently employed in fastening the colossal lion-shaped stone capital to the pillar itself. The bolt is barrel-shaped in appearance and slightly tapering at the two ends. It is 24-1/2 inches long, circumference at the centre being 14 inches and at the sides about 12 inches. Originally cast, this piece was ‘exquisitely worked into shape apparently with hammer, slight marks of which are still visible’.

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Swarna Kamal (1978) has reported a pure copper figure belonging to Gujarat and the pre-Gupta early centuries of the Christian era. This figure of fasting Śākyamuni in meditative posture is of solid cast having a height of 18 cms and width of 13 cms at the basal end. The metal consists of highly pure copper (99 %) with silicon (0.52 %) and iron (0.36 %) as the only two major impurities. Absence of sulphur and copper oxide in the metal led Swarna Kamal to postulate that this was made of native copper as in Taxila Zanskar Valley samples (reported by Sana Ullah) and not smelted copper. The metal ‘is so soft that depressions are formed when pressed by finger nails’. The Hellenistic influence in this wonderful work of art is quite apparent.

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Another famous Buddha image in copper was found in Sultanganj on the Ganges, about midway between Bhagalpur and Monghyr in Bihar. Without its base the figure stands 2 metres or 78.74 inches high, and weighs nearly a ton. (Mitra, 1864) Vincent Smith pointed out that this copper statue has been wrongly described as ‘bronze’ in the Handbook of the Museum and Art Gallery of Birmingham where it is at present located.

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Mitra (1864: 360) described:

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The material is a very pure copper, cast in two layers, the inner one in segments on an earthen mould and held together by iron bands which were originally 3/4 of an inch thick, now worn down by rust. The casting of the face down to the breast was effected in one piece, the lower parts down to the knee in another and then the legs, feet, hands and back in several pieces.

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The outer layer of copper seems to have been cast over the inner one presumably by the cire perdue process. A hole bored through the breast revealed that the substance of the mould inside was like a friable cinder originally consisting of a mixture of sand, clay, charcoal and paddy husks. The virtual transparency of the outer copper garments reflects the greatest credit on the copper-smiths who made this statue. Lumps of copper ore were found in the vicinity suggesting that the smelting and casting operations were done on the spot.

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In the light of the discovery of a coin of the last Western Satrap of Saurāṣṭra accompanied with one of Chandragupta II in the vicinity of the nearby monastery, Vincent Smith concluded that the copper statue belonged to the fifth century AD. (Neogi, 1917, 1979: 23) We have earlier mentioned the fasting Śākyamuni statue of Gujarat made of pure copper. The two masterpieces of pure copper suggest some technological link and might belong to the same era.

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It is significant that pure unalloyed copper was used to make the statues instead of alloyed copper such as bronze or brass; this might have some religious significance. Loṭās used for religious ceremonies were also made of unalloyed copper. The famous iron pillar at Delhi, also made in this Gupta era, constitutes of unalloyed wrought iron.

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The celebrated Chinese traveller, Hiuen-Tsang saw and reported a gigantic copper colossus of Buddha image, no less than 80 ft in height, standing upright towards the east of the great Nalanda convent. This was the work of the seventh century AD, during the reign of Raja Purnavarman. The marauding invaders of the twelfth century did not appreciate the sanctity of these statues; the representatives of another group of invaders discovered in 1862 ‘the right foot of the Sultanganj statue ten feet under the surface and about a mile away from the monastery, and eventually placed this statue in the Birmingham Museum for the posterity to appreciate at least the technical excellence of the ancient Indian copper-smiths.

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In conclusion, we should refer to the huge number of artefacts and works of art made (in ancient India) of alloyed copper with variable proportions of arsenic, tin, lead and zinc. We may review this topic in more detail after discussing the advent of zinc metallurgy in ancient India.

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