Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.15

v1.c23.15

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)