Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2: Indo-Roman Trade in Metals

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2

Language: English

v1.c24.s2.t1 Items of Import to India — 5 parts
v1.c24.s2.t2 Mineral Imports — 33 parts

Indo-Roman Trade in Metals

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Now we would resume our discussion on the Indo-Roman trade.

Copper metal used to be exported from Barygaza to the Persian Gulf when the *Periplus* was written, and from Kalyana in the time of Cosmas five centuries later. At the same time, ‘Meliephtha Khalka’, literally ‘copper cooked in honey’, possibly meaning sheets of ductile or soft copper used to be imported to India. This ductile copper in thin sheets was called ‘honey copper’ because the sheets were shaped like honey-cakes. Ductile copper in Roman times generally meant an alloy with 5 to 10 per cent of lead. (Schoff, 1912: 70)

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Warmington reported that about the time of Augustus, a ‘copper’ flagon of ‘Indian’ workmanship, excatly resembling silver, reached the Roman empire as a substitute for silver. Warmington believed that this was Chinese Tutenag(ue) or white copper. (Warmington, 1928, 1974: 257) Khan points out (1985: 220) that China had improved furnace bellows to develop cupro-nickel alloys, and that around 180 BC the coins of the Bactrian ruler Euthydamus II contained up to 20 per cent nickel. It is also possible that the ‘copper flagon of Indian workmanship exactly resembling silver’ was fakesilver or zinc, a recently discovered Indian product.

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The *Periplus* mentions *oreichalcos* or brass as a commodity of trade. The Greek writers knew it as a copper alloy of variable composition. The early alloy was formed of copper and silver; later zinc was substituted for silver. (O. Davis, Oreikhalkos, *Man* XXIX (1929), 36-37 quoted by Huntingford) The Greek word meant ‘mountain copper’ which Pliny converted into *aurichalcum* or golden copper signifying that brass is yellow. Although the use of calamine, an impure oxide of zinc, in making brass was known, the Roman metallurgy did not distinguish zinc as a separate metal. (Pliny 34.2 and 37.44)

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India on the other hand knew zinc as a separate metal and was the pioneer in zinc and brass metallurgy. Philostratus of Lemons, around AD 230, mentions a shrine in Taxila in which ‘the various figures were portrayed in a mosaic of *orichalcum* (brass) silver, gold and oxidized copper, but the weapons in iron. (Schoff, 1912: 69) We may therefore ignore Pliny’s comment (34.17): ‘India has neither brass nor lead’. This statement signified his unawareness of the developments in India.

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Pliny distinguished between *plumbum candidum* or tin (‘white lead’) and *plumbum nigrum* or lead (‘black lead’). According to the *Periplus*, tin was shipped from Egypt to both Somaliland and India. Galena or lead sulphide was available in Spain and Britain. Some lead was imported at Barygaza to supplement indigenous supply from Rajasthan and used largely for the coinage of the Śaka dominions.

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K.T.M. Hegde (Current Science, Sept. 20, 1968, 37, No. 18, pp. 518-20) proved that the lead coins recovered from Nagara, Gujarat in stratified association with sherds of Roman amphorae, and belonging to the Kṣatrapa period around AD 363 were most possibly made from the lead-zinc ore in the Zawar Mines, Rajasthan. Twenty-five elements were looked for in the coins and the ore, and the impurity patterns were found to be almost the same. The coins contain all the impurities present in the ore except calcium and (in one case) beryllium. Further, the coins do not contain additional impurities which the ore itself does not contain. The coin metal was not alloyed with Cu, Sb or As. Assaying more than 97 per cent lead, it contained as expected around 1.2 per cent zinc coming from the natural ore at Zawar.

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Indians knew the art of making iron and alloying this with carbon before the first millennium before Christ. The ‘bright iron’ of Ezekiel (27.19) must have been special Indian iron. Ctesias mentioned two wonderful swords of such material which he had from the king of Persia. Probably the same material was the ferrum candidum of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent 100 talents’ weight as a present to Alexander. Ferrum indicum also appears in the lists of durable articles under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.

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Punjab and South India were important Indian centres of iron production during the pre-Christian era. In 1986, an iron foundary, dating back to the second century BC, appearing to be one of the world’s oldest, has been discovered on the banks of the Noyyal river in Tamil Nadu’s Periyar district. Excavations in the Koodamanal village by the epigraphists of Tamil University, Thanjavur, yielded evidences indicating a flourishing industrial centre making not only iron pieces for export but also shell bangles, beads and other products made of coral, shell, onyx, jasper, beryl, moonstone etc.

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Pliny says that the finest of all iron was sent to the Roman empire by the ‘Seres’, who were Cheras of the Malabar coast. The author of the Periplus knew that the sword-blades found with the Axumites at Adulis and other African ports were ‘Indian’ coming from the interior of Ariace (North-West India), although he did not find them in any Indian port. Evidently the sources was kept a secret, and the Indian trade in iron and steel was conducted directly with the Pārthians, Arabs and Axumites. Warmington concluded that the ‘excellent Pārthian metal’ mentioned by the Graeco-Romans was ‘perhaps really Indian’. Eventually they also learnt the secret of production, for Salmasius (Saumaise) notes a Greek chemical treatise ‘On the Tempering of Indian Steel’. The Romans worked on the importations (not direct) of Indian iron and steel to produce fancy cutlery, and armour at Damascus and Irenopolis.

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Gold was not a regular item of trade with India but Pliny records that some gold from the Ganges in India reached the Roman Empire. This gold was most probably the alluvial washings from the Chota Nagpur plateau, the river Sone, Suvarnarekha etc. There was some ‘ant gold’ from the Dardistan and Tibet. Pliny mentioned the ‘horn of the gold-digging ant’ preserved in the temple of Hercules at Erythrae, which was a gold-miner’s pick-axe, made of a wild sheep’s horn mounted on a handle.

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Mysore gold was used by the gold-smiths in Madura and sold by traders in Kaviripaddinam and the Malabar marts. Some gold washings from Assam and Irawadi, Pegu and Maulmain area were also available for Indian use and export.

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However, there was more of import of gold into India in the form of coins. The Roman aureus and denarius coins were current throughout Western India, and strongly influenced the Kuṣāṇa and Kṣatrapa coinages. The Kuṣāṇas used to melt and recast the coins with their emblems. In South India however, these exchange commodities were often directly used as legal tenders in the local market. That explains plentiful findings of Roman coins in South India. The Romans’ addiction of precious gems and luxury items caused the flow of gold coins into India and adverse trade balance for the Romans.

Items of Import to India

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The Roman literatures clearly show that some copper, lead and tin used to be imported into India. We have contested Pliny’s statement that ‘India had neither brass nor lead’. Periplus records that the above three metals were imported into Barygaza. Warmington concludes that probably copper and lead were not produced in India during the first century AD.

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It is also possible, as Warmington says, that Indians were receiving excess (more than the country’s production or requirement) copper which was positively exported to the Persian Gulf posts for the Pārthians etc. who were hostile to the Romans. Ptolemy speaks of numerous copper mines in northern India. These mines were possibly closed during the first century AD or partly operating on account of the incessant hostilities between the Śakas, Kuṣāṇas and the local inhabitants. The situation improved by the time of Ptolemy, and few centuries later, Cosmas found indigenous copper at Kalyāṇa.

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Rome exported to India ‘honey-copper’ and lead, often alloyed with copper or tin. Several Indian coins during the first few centuries AD were of lead, slightly alloyed with copper or tin. (Sir Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India, p. 22) Lead was used also, mixed with a little tin in thin sheets, as a foil for the manufacture of mirrors. (R. Mitra, Antiquities of Orissa, I, pp. 100-1)

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The finest lead came from Carthago Nova, Spain. The Spanish mines were getting exhausted, and the Romans obtained additional supplies of lead (as galena) from Britain. Tin came mostly from the mines of Lusitania and Gallaecia in Spain. The Cornish and Irish sources were not very much touched. The main source of the European copper was the island of Cyprus.

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Tamil poems recorded the use of lamps and vases made by the Romans. Bronze vessels of a European (first century AD) type have been found in megalithic tombs of the Nilgiri hills (Chera kingdom). Costly silver vessels were presented to the Śakas of Barbaricon and Barygaza. Bullions of gold came to Kuṣāṇa and the South Indian monarchs.

Mineral Imports

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The Graeco-Roman word for realgar, the red sulphide of arsenic was sandarake; this must have been derived from the Sanskrit word sindūraka for vermilion. Pliny wrote (34.55): “the redder it (realgar) is the more pure and friable, and the more powerful its odour, the better it is in quality. It is detergent, astringent, healing and corrosive, but it is most remarkable for its antiseptic properties”. Realgar used to be brought from Persia and Carmania as a medicine to the Indian marts of Barygaza, Muziris and Nelcynda.

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The Romans brought to Muziris and Nelcynda alone, the yellow arsenic sulphide orpiment which was used in the old paintings of Sri Lanka and India. Like realgar and lapis lazuli, orpiment is also a durable mineral pigment, the name being derived from (golden coloured) auri pigmentum. Pliny wrote (6.26) that orpiment was obtained from the valleys of Hyctanis, a river of Carmania which had an excellent harbour in its mouth.

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The sulphide of antimony, stibnite (Roman stimmi) used for ointments and eye-tinctures, and found chiefly in East Arabia and in Carmania, was imported into Barygaza, Muziris and Nelcynda. Its ancient use in India is well-known. We have also literary evidences of its use in Egypt (1900 BC), and by the Lydian queen Omphale.

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Pliny described its occurrence (33.33-4) in silver mine as ‘a stone made of concrete froth’. Pliny and Dioscorides (5.99) agree regarding the mode of conversion of the ore into antimony Kohl for dilating the pupils and painting the eyebrows. “The ore was enclosed in dough or cow-dung, burned in a furnace, quenched with milk or wine, and beaten with rain-water in a mortar. This being decanted from time to time, the finest powder was allowed to settle, dried under linen, and divided into tablets”. (Quoted by Schoff, 1912: 192) This is a classic recipe of fine particle technology during the ancient times. Stibnite was also used as a medicine for eye irritations, and with grease as a cure for burns.

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Trade of cinnabar, red mercuric sulphide, was not voluminous but certain comments about the name of the mineral may be recorded here. The name sandarake for realgar was transferred to the vegetable gum sandarac of similar red colour. The reverse process took place in the case of cinnabar. The exudations of *Dracaena cinnabari* in Socotra, *Calamus draco* (order Palmae) in India etc. produced red exudations named *Kinnabari*. According to mythology (of Indian origin?) *Kinnabari* is the thick matter or blood which issues from the fighting dragon when crushed beneath the weight of the dying elephant. Eventually it represented Spanish quick-silver earth, the red mineral, sulphide of mercury.

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Pliny recorded (33.38 and 8.12) the mythological background and noted errors made by physicians in his day, of prescribing the poisonous Spanish cinnabar (mineral) instead of the Indian vegetable product. He even suggested different names for the two different materials (resemblance was of colour only), but his suggestions were not heeded. (Schoff, 1912: 137-39) Was this, the source of alchemical confusion about ‘the miraculous and medicinal properties’ of mercury? The word cinnabar was equivalent to Persian *zinjafr* or *zinjarf* and Hindu (?) *shangarf* (from *saṅgharṣa* or battle?).

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As regards the remaining items of import into India, we may mention amber which was probably brought from the Baltic, across south Russia through the Scythian tribes. Emeralds of Egypt had to compete with Bactrian emerald and Indian beryl, and therefore entered the field as late as the second century AD. The only gem-stone recorded by the *Periplus* as an export to India is the chrysolite, sent from Ethiopia and the Red Sea to Barbaricon, Barygaza, Muziris and Nelcynda.

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Indians were acquainted with the making and uses of glass much before the Indo-Roman contacts. Pliny mentioned about the superiority of Indian glass (36.66) and the Indians’ expertise in “imitating various precious stones, beryls in particular, by colouring crystal”. There is a reference to the ancient Sanskrit play *Mṛcchakaṭika* or ‘little clay cart’ about ‘the dexterity of artists colouring crystals and producing imitation ornaments’.

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The *Periplus* recorded that in India and Sri Lanka, glass mirrors were made with a foil of lead and tin at the back. Crude glass was an item of Indo-Roman trade, the famous glasses of Alexandria, Tyre and Sidon being imported to the Indian ports of Barygaza, Nelcynda and Miziris, evidently for making finished products such as vessels and mirrors. Some glass vessels were imported into Barbaricon. A few Roman glass objects of the Christian era have been found at Manikyala in the Punjab, at Bahmanabad in the Indus region etc. (Warmington, 1928, 1974: 271-72)

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The red coral of the Western Mediterranean, *Corallium rubrum*, family *Gorgonidae* was one of the principal assets of the Roman Empire in its trade with the East. It commanded a high price in India and China, and was one of the principal Roman exports to Barbaricum, Barygaza and Muziris. The red coral fisheries, then as now, were in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, near Naples, Genoa, around the coasts of Tunis, Algeria and Morocco etc. Pliny observed with some surprise (32.11) that red coral was as highly prized in India as was white pearl at Rome. Ball, the famous nineteenth century mineralogist, ascribed the Indians' preference for red coral to "the way its tints adapt themselves to set off a dark skin, and also look well with a white garment". Black coral, in abundance in the Red Sea, was not so popular in India. (Schoff, 1912: 128 and 168)

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In this chapter, we have highlighted India's mineral wealth and expertise in producing various commercial items from minerals and metals, during the Roman era. The Roman travellers and traders wrote eloquently about India's supremacy in the area of precious minerals and gems.

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Since the Pre-, Mature-, and Post-Harappan ages, India used and processed minerals and metals, exported a large number of them, and also imported the deficiency items. The Graeco-Roman chroniclers emphasized both exports from, and imports into India. In this connection, confusions about nomenclatures have been evident and therefore highlighted. The equivalences between the Indian (Sanskritic), Graeco-Roman, Latin and modern names of minerals, metals and alloys have not been always easy to decipher, and more investigations in this direction are called for. Our critical analysis have however thrown new light on the subject and points towards certain historical truths regarding the history of minerals and metals in India and elsewhere in the world. Confusions have arisen on account of similar colours of widely different minerals, and the ancients' lack of knowledge of the modern methods of identification. The residual problems may be solved by sophisticated analysis of the ancient samples.

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The Romans confirmed India's supremacy in the technology of iron and its carbon alloys, but they failed to realise India's heritage in copper, zinc and brass technology. This may be explained by the facts that the regions between Rajasthan and Taxila were battlegrounds of Kuṣāṇas, Śakas, etc. during the Roman period, and the mining and smelting activities were going on in a low key. The Romans never had any direct knowledge about copper, zinc and brass metallurgies in India. The numerous copper mines in India were mentioned by Ptolemy but not the earlier Roman writers. Statues and other items made of brass found in Taxila and Northern India were mentioned by the Greek and Chinese travellers but rarely so by the Romans.

Linked texts (6)

Mṛcchakaṭika — Śūdraka, Sanskrit
Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin
יְחֶזְקֵאל — Hebrew
Zawar
Barygaza
Kalyana

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2: Indo-Roman Trade in Metals

Contents

Indo-Roman Trade in Metals

Items of Import to India

Mineral Imports

Linked texts (6)