Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c20.s2.2

v1.c20.s2.2

Charkrabarti (1982: 83) endorsed Sahi’s conclusion that “iron metallurgy was invented independently as an offshoot of copper metallurgy in India, particularly in the regions of Malwa and Banas cultures” on the basis of the works of Charles (1979) and Hegde (1981). We agree about the concept of independent origin of iron in India but feel uncertain whether this was ‘an offshoot of copper metallurgy’. Hegde (1981) was quoted but probably misunderstood; what he wrote was that it was not easy for copper-smiths to invent iron. They had the furnace which could provide a temperature of 1250°C for solid state reduction of iron ore, but they had to wait for centuries before the conflicting demands of high rate of oxygen supply and high CO/CO₂ ratio or a reducing atmosphere within the charcoal bed could be met substantially. The evidence of small quantities of poor quality iron occurring at the earliest levels of the iron age sites shows intensive experimentation, and proves that “we did not receive the technical know-how of iron smelting and smithery from an outside source”. (Hegde, 1981: 196) The argument may be further extended. Atrañjikhera and Jakhera PGW sites exhibit a large number of iron tools of varied nature; therefore, we may propose that iron was possibly discovered in the earlier periods of BRW era which shows ill-defined iron objects.