Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.28

v1.c23.28

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.