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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23: 15. India’s Trade in Minerals and Metals: Pre-Harappan to Pre-Roman Periods

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23

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15. India’s Trade in Minerals and Metals: Pre-Harappan to Pre-Roman Periods

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The Harappans had extensive trade-links within and outside India. Like the Sumerians, they made many articles out of metals, semi-precious stones and other minerals. Apart from the production centres in the northern and western part of the sub-continent, several trade and raw material centres in the Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and the Sumerian outposts were linked with the Harappan capitals. Both land-routes, across Khyber Pass and Bolan Pass, and the sea-routes along the Indian, Iranian and Sumerian coasts were used. There are evidences that certain raw materials were imported by land routes to the Indus Valley sites, processed and then exported via the sea-routes. This trend continued for several millennia up to the Roman era. First we would like to present a few examples of Pre-Harappan and Harappan trade in metals and minerals. (Asthana, 1982)

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Blue lapis lazuli is a complex aggregate of four rock-forming minerals of feldspathoid group — hauynite, sodalite, noselite and lazurite. It has been adored for its dark blue colour in most ancient civilizations. The original Sanskrit name rājāvarta was converted to lazward in Persian and then to ‘lapis lazuli’. Sometimes the names veluriya (sapphire), asitopala (aquamarine) have also been used to denote the minerals. It is commonly agreed that the well-known mines of Afghanistan were the likely sources of lapis lazuli in the ancient period. (Herrmann, 1968; Chakraborti, 1978) A group of four mines is situated in the Kerano Munjan Valley of Badakshan Province of which Sar-i-Sang is still in use today.

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The Pre-Harappan site of Nal (Southern Baluchisthan) yielded 70 lapis beads — cylindrical, discoid and flat irregular hexagon. Besides, a few other sites of Pre- or Early-Harappan era such as Kulli, Mehi, Shahi Tump etc. also produced lapis lazuli beads up to 2300 BC; most of lapis used to go to Shahr-i-Sokhta and thereafter the Harappans took over the trade. Unfinished lapis beads were found at Chanhu-Daro suggesting local manufacture. Cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia lists lapis as one of the commodities coming from Meluhha, and therefore it is quite probable that the Harappans imported raw lapis from Afghanistan, and exported the processed items to Mesopotamia etc. Occasional use of lapis in some chalcolithic sites such as Ahar, Navdatoli, Nevasa and later at Taxila, Champā, Srasvastī suggest continued trade with Afghanistan.

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Turquoise is a hydrous phosphate of aluminium and copper and has colour varying from sky-blue to apple-green. Only a few Harappan sites such as Mohenjo-Daro, Rahman Dheri and Mehrgarh have yielded turquoise, and it appears that this mineral was not as popular as lapis amongst the Harappans. Only finished beads, and not the raw materials were imported. During pre-historic times, turquoise came from the well-known sources near Nishapur in Iran. Other sources were the mountainous territory of the inner Kyzyl Kum and Kirman (source of callaina or turquoise — Pliny's 37th Book). Shahr-i-Sokhta and Mundigak were the processing centres. (Tosi, 1974) Probably these centres, specially the latter one supplied turquoise beads to Mehrgarh and Harappan sites.

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Chakraborti (1971) has reviewed the problem of tin in early India. During the Pre-Harappan and Harappan period, the main supply of tin was most probably from the western regions: Khorasan and the area between Bukhara and Samarkand. There were ancient tin mines in the Kara Dagh district in north-western Iran and in the modern Afghan-Iranian Seistan. The supply of tin metal or ores to the Harappan sites was never profuse. The metal-smiths used to economise on tin by storing and re-using scrap pieces of bronze, making low-tin alloys and substituting tin in bronze by arsenic. The Harappan centres probably exported a part of the imported tin (like lapis lazuli) to Mesopotamia. A cylinder seal of Gudea of Lagash (2143-2124 BC) read: “copper, tin, blocks of lapis lazuli—bright carnelian from the land of Meluhha”. (Muhly, 1976) Similar sources might have continued to satisfy the needs of tin in Taxila and at the same time the West Asian and Graeco-Roman requirements by trade through the Indus ports.

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The chalcolithic sites in central and eastern India of the Post-Harappan era might have received tin ores from the alluvial washings. Several raw material sites have been suggested such as Bhilwara in Rajasthan, Dhoni Nullah of the Dambal Hills, Dharwar, Dumagudiem in the Bastar district, Nurungo or Nurgo in the Hazārībāgh-Gangā-Rānchi belt. (Chakraborti, 1979) Tin, known as trapu in the Atharva Vedic age, was also named vaṅga probably in connection with its use in the chalcolithic culture of Bengal. This culture of the late second millennium BC period was probably connected with the Thailand culture of the same period (Solheim, 1967), and it is not improbable that some tin might have been imported into India from South-East Asia. The historical period witnessed sustained use of bronzes (Chakraborti, 1979) and part of the tin must have come from outside India (Malayasia etc.).

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Harappans most probably obtained their lead (with silver) from the Fāranjāl mine in the Ghorband Valley of Afghanistan. The Harappans obtained most of their copper from India itself—Khetri, Ganeshwar-Jodhpura, Ahar regions etc. Similarly, there were more than one source for steatite: northern Baluchistan, area around Fort Sandeman, several areas in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The main deposit for carnelian was probably in Kāthiawād at Rajpipla near the village of Ratanpur. These materials and also copper, ivory, shell objects etc. used to be exported. Gold was obtained mostly from alluvial washings and river sands, and it is unlikely that Kolar gold field was tapped during the Harappan period. Diamond mining on some measurable scale must have started much later.

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2000-300 BC

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The Sumerians and the Egyptians were the earliest traders in Indian commodities. The bas-reliefs of the temple of Deir-el-Bahari at Thebes describe “the abundant booty loading the vessles of Pharaoh containing Indian goods: elephants’ teeth (ibha-danta or ivory), gold, precious stones, sandalwood and monkeys”.

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In the Mosaic period (1491-50 BC), precious stones imported from India used to decorate the breastplates of the high priests. During the middle and end of the second millennium BC, some Minoan and Cretan traders might have traded with Indians. Probably they introduced the use of channel-spouted bowls in Navdatoli, Maheswar etc. This influence permeated up to some East Indian sites such as Pāṇḍu Rājār Dhibi where a round seal of black steatite of Minoan origin has been found; this suggests trade link with the people of Crete. (Dasgupta, 1964: 29) The Phoenicians also traded with India indirectly through the port of Aden.

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Around 1015 BC, King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre sent commercial ships which were the first to sail directly from the Arabian port to India (not following the sea coast). The expedition touched ‘Ophir’ — now identified as Sophir or Sauvira in the Gulf of Cambay, north of Bombay — and brought back gold, silver, ivory and peacocks. Regular sea-trade on the Arab-India Erythrean Sea commenced in the time of Nabonidus, beginning of the seventh century BC.

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(Kennedy, 1898) The Arab and Indian sailors must have taken advantage of the monsoon winds, but this was unknown to the Graeco-Roman sailors for a long time, till Hippalus discovered the trade winds around AD 45.

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The rise of the Medo-Persian kingdom heralded Persia’s early commerce with India. We enter into the recorded political history beginning with sixth century BC, towards the later half of which Cyrus the great made a partially successful onslaught on India. (Rapson, 1921: 294-300) The empire of Darius (522-486 BC) extended from the borderline of Greece to the borderline of India. Xerexes (486-65 BC) attacked Greece. Herodotus, the Greek historian of this period described some Indian satraps paying a tribute of three hundered and sixty talents of gold dust (over a million pounds sterling) to the Persian emperor. (Herodotus, III, 94) For the invasion of Greece, the Persian army was assisted by the Indians carrying cane bows and arrows of cane, tipped with iron. This early reference to the Indian gold and iron merit further comments.

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Herodotus was the first to report the myth, which was later perpetuated by subsequent Greek writers such as Nearchos, Pliny etc., than in India, gold was produced by gold-digging ants ‘as big as griffins’. (Herodotus, III, 102-106) Even the epic *Mahābhārata* mentioned ant-gold or *pipīlikā suvarṇa*. It is now clear that the Dardic people in northern Kashmir and Tibetans were the gold-miners who preferred to dig the mines in winter and in secrecy, surrounded by ferocious dogs described as ‘griffin-size ants’. (McCrindle, 1896: 187, 341-42)

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During Alexander’s time, part of the Dardic region must have been in contact with the kingdom of Saubhūti, the Indian king around Jhelum who was friendly to the Greeks and known to them as Sopheithes. Strabo (64 BC-AD 19) wrote in his *Geographica* (XV.i.30) that there were valuable mines both of gold and silver among the mountains in the country of Sopheithes. It is quite understandable therefore, that the Dardic sources and the alluvial washings, mentioned by the Greek writers starting from Herodotus, yielded sufficient gold in India to be sent to the West Asian kings e.g., Solomon, Darius etc. of the first millennium BC.

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Iron was discovered and used in India around 1200-1000 BC, and this led to the growth of *mahājanapadas* in the Gaṅgā-Yamunā valley and to the phenomenon of ‘second urbanisation’ (after Harappan) in India. The reference made by Herodotus to the iron-tipped arrows carried by Indian soldiers is very significant, since this is the first use of Indian iron outside the country. Ktesias, who was a resident physician in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes Memnon, wrote in his *Indika* (398 BC) of two iron swords of India that he received from the king of Persia and his mother. It is difficult to say whether this was made of wootz (high carbon iron) or steel. Ktesias also mentions the property of iron to ward off thunderstorms. Curtis Rufus described Alexander being presented (at Malli between Chenāb and Rāvī) various items including ‘100 talents of steel’. (McCrindle, 1896: 252)

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Even during the Homeric times reference is available for tin along with ivory coming from India. (Ball, 1880: 230) Ball endorses Lassen’s comment that the Greek word kassiteros was derived from kastira whereas Bevan feels (Rapson, 1921: 351) that it is the other way round. There is a similar controversy about brass — ārakūṭa in Sanskrit and oreichalkos in Greek. At any rate, these similarities (also note ibha-danta — ivory) indicate trading links between India and Greece starting from the Homeric times.

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Saubhūti, of whom we have mentioned earlier, is credited to be one of the early Indian kings to produce coinage — silver coinage — in the style of the Persian sigloi. The square-shaped punch-marked coins were made of silver, some others of gold or copper. Some coins were formed of a copper blank thickly covered with silver before receiving the impression of the punches. (McCrindle, 1896: 370-72)

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Herodotus mentioned (I, 192) the Babylon used to obtain precious stones and dogs from India. Indika of Kteisas contains references to Indian items such as shellac, gold from spring congealed in earthen pitchers (alluvial washings melted and cast into ingots?), silver from the land of pygmies (Rajasthan or Burma?), iron, sardine, stone, onyx from the mountains (near Ujjain?), pantarba mineral displaying colours (opal?), oil floating over lake in the country of pygmies (petroleum in Burma?) etc. (Ball, 1880: 224-28)

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The availability and use of the precious metals and minerals in India during Alexander’s time is evident from the writing of Curtius Rufus:

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Gold is carried down by several rivers, whose loitering waters glide with slow and gentle currents. The sea casts upon the shores precious stones and pearls. Nothing has contributed more to the opulence of the natives, for these offscourings of the boiling sea are valued at the price which fashion sets on converted luxuries. (McCrindle, 1896: 187)

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Rufus also described the use of pendants of precious stones, gold bracelets, silver censers etc. He described king Saubhūti presenting ‘his spectre made of gold and set with beryls’ to Alexander. (McCrindle, 1896: 220) Pliny of the first century AD wrote in his Naturalis Historia (37.5) that beryls were seldom found elsewhere than in India, and that the Indians had discovered how to make counterfeit gems and specially beryls by staining crystal. Solinus of the third century AD drew upon Pliny and wrote:

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The Indians rub down the beryl into hexagonal forms in order to impart vigour to the dull tameness of the colour by the reflection from the angles. Of the beryl, the varieties are manifold.

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That the Indians admired beryl (*vaidūrya*) is clear from Pāṇini’s references. Buddhist relic caskets of beryl and rock crystal have been found from the *stūpas* of Bhattiprolu and Piprahwā corrresponding to the Maurya period.

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Alexander left India in 325 BC, but the Greek contact and influence in India persisted well beyond his departure. The Maurya Dynasty at Pāṭaliputra (Patna) lasted for nearly one-and-half century (321-184 BC). Megasthenes was appointed at the court of Candragupta around 300 BC. In his *Indika*, he reported:

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India has numerous underground veins of all sorts of metals — gold, silver, copper, iron in no small quantity, and even tin and other metals employed for ornaments, implements and accoutrements of war.

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While doubts have been raised whether India had enough tin at any point of time, it should not be forgotten that the metal or its ore was often imported from the Central and South-East Asia, and a part of it could always be exported as an ‘Indian commodity’. The splendour of the Indian mineral and metal resources of this period has been beautifully recorded in the Indian treatise Kautilya’s *Arthaśāstra* which may be discussed later and separately. Megasthenes repeated the fable of the ‘gold-digging ants’ which need not be discussed any more.

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During Aśoka’s reign (274-37 BC) and thereafter, the Buddhist missionaries spread out in all directions, across India’s borders, and this augmented trades of various items including minerals and metals. The king of Sri Lanka, Devānāmpiya Tissa (247-207 BC) sent to Aśoka various presents including sapphires, lapis lazuli, rubies, and eight varieties of pearls which “rose miraculously from the earth and the sea respectively”. (*Mahāvaṃsa* narrative) Aśoka’s return-gift consisted of golden and other ornaments and ‘costly hand-towels which are cleansed by being passed through the fire’.

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Ball (1880: 229) commented that Sri Lanka did not have any lapis lazuli and the said item was most probably asteria (or star sapphire) or blue iolite (or dichroite), both of which occur in Sri Lanka. Lapis Lazuli might have come from the mines of Badakshan. Excavation made on the supposed site of Aśoka’s throne yielded sapphires, emeralds, mostly broken into splinters, two pebbles of iolite, some beads of lapis lazuli, coral and some imitation emeralds, made of glass etc. (*Proc. Asiatic Society, Bengal, May 1881, p. 89*) The hand-towels were most likely made of woven asbestos, which might have come from Afghanistan.

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Thus the trade and movement of precious stones connected the distant lands of Afghanistan, Bihar and Sri Lanka.

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The Greek influence on the Indian use of minerals and metals continued through occasional incursions into India and technical collaborations. Yavaneśvara’s Greek book on astrology and minerals (~150 AD) was translated as Yavanajātaka in Sanskrit by Sphujidvaja (~ AD 270).

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Our chapter on minerals and metals in Taxila shows how the successive waves of Persians, Bacterian Greeks, Scythians, Pārthians and Kuṣāṇas enriched diverse technology of materials in India for nearly one thousand years. The Greek sailors of Alexandria and Egypt introduced the Romans to the fascinating world of minerals and metals. This subject would constitute another chapter in our treatise.

References

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Asthana, Shashi, 1982, “Harappan Trade in Metals and Minerals: A Regional Approach”, In *Harappan Civilization* edited by G.L. Possehl, Oxford IBH, New Delhi, pp. 271-85. Ball, V., 1880, “A Geologist’s contribution to the History of Ancient India”, In *Journal of Royal Geological Society of Ireland*. Vol. 5, Part 3, 1879-80, Edinburgh, pp. 215-63. Chakrabarti, D.K., 1978, “Lapis Lazuli in Early India”, In *Man and Environment*, Vol. 2, pp. 51-58. —, 1979, “The Problem of Tin in Early India — A Preliminary Survey”, In *Man and Environment*, Vol. 3, pp. 61-74. Dasgupta, P.C., 1964, “The Excavations at Pandu Rajar Dhibi”, In *Bulletin of the Directorate of Archaeology*, West Bengal, No. 2. Herrmann, G., 1968, “Lapis Lazuli: The Early Phases of its Trade”, In *Iraq* 30 (1): pp. 21-57. Kennedy, 1898, *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society* pp. 248-87 quoted by W.H. Schoff in his translation of the *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*. McCrindle, J.W., 1877, *Ancient India as Described by Arrian and Megasthenes*, Calcutta, Bombay and London, contains Fragments of the *Indica* by Megasthenes. —, 1882, *Ancient India as Described by Ktesias the Knidian*, Calcutta, Bombay and London, English translation of *Indica* of Ctesias. —, 1896, *The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, as described by Arrian, Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin*, 1969 edition by Barnes & Noble, New York and Methuen & Co. London. (Arian, a Greek official of the Roman empire c. 130 AD. His works *Anabasis* and *Indica*, translated by E.J. Chinnock. London 1893, Quintus Curtius Rufus belonged to first century AD, author of *Historica Alexandri Magni*. Diodoros lived around 60-36 BC. Plutarch AD 45-125 Justin lived during the second half of second century AD). —, 1901, *Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature*, Westminster, contains translation of Pliny the Elder’s (AD 23-79) latin work *Naturalis Historia* and also of Strabo’s (64 BC-AD 19) *Geographica*. Muhly, J.D., 1976, *Copper and Tin*, Hamden: Archon Books, pp. 306-7. Rapson, E.J. (ed.), 1921, *The Cambridge History of India Volume I*, Indian Edition 1955, S. Chand & Co. Delhi. Solheim, W.C., 1967, *Science*, Vol. 157, p. 896. Tosi, M., 1974, “The Problem of Turquoise in Protohistoric Trade on the Iranian Plateau”, In *Memoire dell’ Institute di Palaeontologie Umana II* : pp. 147-62.

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