Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s6.22

v1.c25.s6.22

The major source of sodium has been the efflorescent alkaline *reh* deposits which ruin agriculture but aid industries. These natural deposits of *reh* salts — Na₂CO₃, NaHCO₃, NaCl, Na₂SO₄ — were used in the ancient times for making glass, providing glaze in the NBPW ware (*vide* chapter 11) etc. The *reh* salts occur as thin superficial incrustations, in flaky cemented patches, as a layer of white salt admixed with river alluvium soil. These alkaline soils widely occur in Moradabad, Meerut and several other districts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc. and known as *reh*. These are known as *khari* in Bihar, *thur* and *kallar* in Punjab, *chavudu* in Andhra Pradesh and *chowhi chakke* in Mysore. As a matter of fact, the deposits are so widely occurring that most sites making glass in the Ancient India (*vide* fig. 17.5) could have been upon *reh*-like materials from the neighbouring deposits.