Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c19.s6.t8.5

v1.c19.s6.t8.5

It is difficult for us to agree with Agrawal and Gaur (Gaur, 1983: 219-20, 496) that iron was made here from iron shale sample collected from the Agra-Gwalior range and assayed by them. Their sample contains 21.69 per cent Fe₂O₃. How could such a poor raw material be smelted to yield a slag containing as high as 63-66 per cent Fe₂O₃? Evidently some better raw material was smelted. We also do not agree with Gaur (Gaur, 1983: 220) that the metallic content was obtained in the ‘fluid form’. In the early days, temperature of the furnace never exceeded melting point of iron, and the metal was obtained essentially through solid state reduction.