Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s2: Tin Ore in Ancient India
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s2
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Tin Ore in Ancient India
v1.c25.s2.1
The chalcolithic cultures in the Indus Valley and Post-Harappan sites of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Peninsular and Eastern India produced bronze objects containing tin, the source of which has not been precisely determined. We have quoted Chakrabarti (1979) in our chapter 15 and pointed out that tin ore could have been imported from the well-known mines of Afghanistan and Iran during the Harappan era, and again later during the prosperity of Taxila. During the post-Christian era, considerable amount of tin ore or metal could have been imported from South-East Asian countries such as Malaysia.
v1.c25.s2.2
Some tin ore was probably mined indigenously. Brown and Dey (1955: 167-68) and Krishnaswamy (1972: 346-49) indicated the existence of tin ore deposits in certain areas of Rajasthan, Karnataka and Bihar, which are in the neighbourhood of the archaeological sites yielding ancient tin-bronze objects. There was some tin ore in the Bhilwara and Udaipur districts. Colonel Tod had mentioned about such tin mines (*Annals of Rajasthan*, Vol. 1, p. 504) earning lot of revenue for the State of Udaipur, but Ball disbelieved the account, and thought that the metal alluded to zinc and not tin. In any case, existence of some tin ore in the area is not disputed.
v1.c25.s2.3
In Hazaribagh district, Bihar, the tin ore is found at Simritari, Pihra, Chappatand and Nurungo. In 1849, tin ore was actually being smelted at Purgo, near Parasnath. (Brown and Dey, 1955: 167) In Ranchi district, the deposits are found at Jonha, Silli and Paharsingh, and in Gayā district at Dhakanahwa and Dhanras. In Karnataka, small cassiterite deposits are reported to be present in the alluvia of the streams flowing from the northern part of the Kapatgod Hills, near Dambal in Dharwar district.
v1.c25.s2.4
Cassiterite is often found in the form of water-concentrated placer deposits, referred to as ‘stream tin’. Tylecote (1962: 63) suggested that the ancient metallurgists might have exploited (and exhausted) placer deposits of ‘stream tin’ rather than vein deposits which are hard to mine. Such surface accumulations in the proximity of the Aravalli and Chota Nagpur Hills might have been, according to Hegde, one of the sources of tin in ancient India.