Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2.t1: Items of Import to India
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2.t1
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Items of Import to India
v1.c24.s2.t1.1
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.
v1.c24.s2.t1.2
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.
v1.c24.s2.t1.3
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)
v1.c24.s2.t1.4
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.
v1.c24.s2.t1.5
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.