Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s1.t1.2

v1.c25.s1.t1.2

Eastwick (quoted by Ball) estimated in his book ‘Gold in India’ that Solomon received in 1015 BC, gold from Ophir in Malabar country. In the enumeration of nations and tribes which paid tribute to the Persian monarch, Darius (522-486 BC), “the Indians alone, we are told, paid in gold, all the others paying in silver”. The amount of the gold was 360 Euboeic talents. We have discussed in our chapter 15 the myth of ‘gold-digging ants as big as griffins’, first propagated by Herodotus, and explained that the Dardic people in Northern Kashmir and the Tibetans used to dig gold-mines during winter and under secrecy, surrounded by ferocious dogs. During Alexander’s time, Sopheithes (Saubhūti), the king around Jhelum possessed gold/silver deposits. Several centuries later, Pliny wrote: ‘Gold is very abundant among the Dardae (Dardic people in Kashmir)’.