Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.t2: Bihar
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.t2
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Bihar
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26. Rakha Mines, Singhbhum district, 22°38' N, 86°22' E
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| Name and Location | Comments |
| 27. Mosabani, Singhbhum 22°29' N to 22°31' N, 86°28' E | Old workings in this area are among the largest met within the belt and stretch between Mosabani and Badia. 60 ft depth, 4 ft wide. 5-6 diam old rotten timber found by Dunn (1937) — not C-14 dated. |
| 28. Garadi, Singhbhum 22°43' N, 86°14' E | An old circular shaft and a furnace. |
| 29. Dhobani, Singhbhum 22°31' N, 86°26' 30" E | A number of large old workings, some 30 m wide and up to 12 m deep |
| 30. Rajdah, Singhbhum 22°41' N, 86°17' E | Number of old workings for copper, a few of them fairly deep |
| 31. Ramchandra Pahar, Singhbhum, 22°43' N, 86°12' 30" E | Plenty of old workings in chloritic schists |
| 32. Bāragandā (12x4= 48 pits), Hazaribagh, 24°05' N, 86°03' 30" E | Extensive old workings extending over a length of 1200 metres, width 4m Copper 1.5 per cent. Number of slag heaps. Ancient mining was contemporaneous with that in Singhbhum copper belt. |
| GUJARAT | |
| 33. Rupavati mine in Kaṭhiāwār | Native copper or oxide minerals of copper might have been used in 1800 BC. site of Rangpur. |
| ANDHRA PRADESH | |
| 34. Agnigundala, Guntur, A.P., 16°11' N, 79°44' 30" E | Long open trenches linear belt of 2 miles, open cast mining, reached a depth of 100 ft.. All phases from mining to crushing and smelting. Smelting of copper as well as lead and silver. Nearby Bandlomattu mine C-14 dated AD 1070-1320. |
| 35. Gavulabhavi, Cuddapah, A.P. | Lead deposit, linear pits and trenches, shafts and inclines. Surface diggings 280 m along the strike. Underground mine 100 m length, maximum depth 50 m. |
| KARNATAKA | |
| 36. Kalyadi, Hassan district, 17 km. from Arsikere, 13°18' N, 76°05' E | 5th-3rd century BC megalith settlement mine. One vertical shaft depth of 6 m. After reaching 20 m, the trenches seem to have spread out horizontally as open trenches. Mining, crushing, washing and smelting done for copper ore. |
| 37. Kallur | Indication of copper-smelting around 1200-1000 BC. |
| 38. Wynad, Tamil Nadu | Gold field, Vertical shafts, sometimes 70 ft deep. |
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Circumstantial evidences suggest that Rajasthan provided the earliest copper ores to Chalcolithic India (fig. 17.1 and Tables 17.1-17.2). This area sustained the Pre-, Mature- and Post-Harappan chalcolithic cultures of the North-Western India over a considerable period of centuries. As we have discussed in chapter 2, the Pre-Harappan Jodhpura OCP Culture received copper ores and artefacts from the mines around Ganeshwar area (fig. 17.2). R.C. Agrawala *et al.* (1982, 1984) have explained the strategic positions of the mines of Chiplata, Baleshwar, Dariba (the word means copper mine — so many Dariba’s in Rajasthan!) etc. around the Ganeshwar hilly area in which originated the navigable rivers of Sabi, Sota, Kasaunti, Dohan, Kantli etc. These rivers are dotted with ancient mines and might have carried the end-products and ingots to the Harappan sites of the Sarasvati and the Indus river system.
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After the decline of the Harappan civilization, the traditions moved eastward (where there were not too many mineral deposits) and southward across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The Southern Rajasthan site of Chalcolithic Ahar (discussed in chapter 7) thrived on the neighbouring mines, and served successive civilizations at Lothal (chapter 6), Atrañjikhera (chapter 11) etc.
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Muzumdar and Rajaguru surveyed the ancient copper workings around the site of Ahar close to Udaipur. The following copper-bearing areas were studied:
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(a) 18-24 miles NNE of Udaipur — villages near Delwara. About 17 old openings were found near Kotri, Vilota and Delwara; 25 old openings near Keroli-Piplia area. The deepest opening (125 ft deep) was near Kotri. Vilota showed mining activity only but no smelting, whereas Kotli, Piplia and Delwara showed both mining and smelting; large heaps of slag were found in these areas. Rejected malachite-stained quartz pieces showed that very careful selective mining was done.
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(b) 50 miles SE of Udaipur — one old copper working at Velvi, a village near Lassadia. It seems that there was mining activity alone and no smelting.
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(c) 31 miles East of Udaipur — a large quantity of scattered copper slag pieces was seen but no old copper working. This Bansda, Bhinder area, like the Ahar site itself, was basically a smelting site depending on copper ores from the neighbouring areas.
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Apart from clay retorts, crucibles etc., many slag pieces were found which could be classified as
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(i) Heavy and massive type containing more iron, some copper, and silicates.
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[Figure: RAJASTHAN Miles 20 0 20 40 60 80 100 50 0 50 100 150 km H A R Y A N A PUNJAB Harappa GANGANAGAR Kalibangan Siswal Mitathal DELHI Sothi Bhadra Rewari Sabaniya Pugal JHUNJHUNU CHURU BIKANER SIKAR Khetri Bairath Ganeswar Jodhpur NAGAPUR Kurada JAISALMER JODHPUR PALI Elana JALOR SIROHI U.P. ALWAR JAIPUR Noh BHARATPUR Nandlalpura Kotamohan SAWAMADHOPUR Pushkar AJMER TONK Ekalsingha Bāgor BHILWARA BUNDI KOTA CHITTORGARH Giland Ahar Padolya UDAIPUR Jhāpal DUNGARPUR BANSWARA G U J A R A T AHMEDABAD Surkotdo Lothal Desolpur Kot-Diji P A K I S T A N ▲ Ancient cities ● Modern cities ▲ Copper Hoard Fig. 17.1: Proto-historic Copper Sites in Rajasthan, second and third millennia BC.]
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Fig. 17.2: Jodhapura OCP and Ganeshwar Copper Culture Sites in Rajasthan.
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(ii) lighter type with less iron
(iii) glassy froth type as found 40 ft below in Ahar excavations.
(iv) pieces fused with burnt clay or sand.
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The mineralization in the Udaipur area shows apart from copper, also some lead, zinc, cadmium, silver etc. The glassy froth type of slag could be the residue after recovery of lead and silver. One copper artefact from Lothal (chapter 6) and another from Atrañjikhera (chapter 11) contained zinc; these could have been derived from the ore from the Udaipur area. It has been recorded that Ahar copper artefacts (chapter 7) contained as much as 1.62-1.64 per cent lead. We would mention about the Lead-Silver-Zinc ore ancient mines in Rajasthan and Gujarat separately later.
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D.P. Agrawal et al. (1976) provided some C-14 dates of ancient copper working in India which we have included in our Table 17.1. Rajpura-Dariba near Udaipur provides the earliest C-14 dated mine: 1260 ± 160 BC. The ore-body having Cu-Zn as well as Pb-Ag ore lenses was exploited till 1000 BC. It has not been possible to pin-point the mining areas which supplied copper to the Chalcolithic Cultures in the in the Peninsular (chapter 8) and Eastern (chapter 9) regions.
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Large scale mining was resumed around 400 BC as evident from Kautilya's Arthaśāstra (vide Vol. II, chapter 5), and continued through the Maurya, Śuṅga and Kuṣāṇa eras up to the second century AD. Rajpura-Dariba was again exploited for five centuries (375 BC to AD 110), if not longer, Rampura-Agucha for at least two centuries (370-250 BC) and Zawar Mines for at least five centuries. (430 BC to 60 AD and so on) (Table 17.1)
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Archaeological evidence suggests that there were a number of prosperous towns flourishing in Rajasthan during the Historical Period (400 BC-AD 400) close to the copper mining areas. Some of the important ones among them include Nagari near Chittorgarh, Nagar near Tonk, Pushkar near Ajmer, Bairat, Rairh and Sambhar near Jaipur. Nineteen ancient mine sites in Rajasthan, unfortunately undated, are listed in Table 17.2.
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The C-14 dates show that the Ambamata, Gujarat mine (140 BC) was exploited during the Śuṅga period for copper, lead and zinc ores and the Ingaldahal, Karnataka copper mine utilised for the periods AD 170-220, if not also earlier. Kalyadi and Kallur in Karnataka can claim great antiquity in copper mining.
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According to V. Ball (1881), the Seraks or lay Jains initiated copper mining in the Singhbhum and Hazārībāgh districts during the Historical Period, and the tradition persisted till the sixth century AD (vide Table 17.2). Late Kuṣāṇa type copper coins have been found in the Rakha Mine (No. 26). The Chamoli and Almora district (Uttar Pradesh) mines and the Kulu, Himachal Pradesh mines were also active during the sixth century AD and later periods. In the ninth century AD, the copper mines of Nepal became famous, and the product naipālī copper received eminence.
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The C-14 dates of 1070-1440 AD (Table 17.1) show the activities of the copper-lead-zinc producing mines of Bandlomattu-Agnigundala area in Andhra Pradesh, Ambaji and Kumbaria in Gujarat and Deri mine in Rajasthan.
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At Agnigundala, the old workings are spread over a linear belt of more than two miles and there were rock dumps, ore dumps, pounding stones, washing tanks, tailing dumps, smelting furnaces, crucibles or cupolas and evidences for excavation of copper and lead. (Ziauddin, 1961)
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In the Ambaji and Kumbaria (24°19-20' N, 72°51' E) areas of Gujarat and Deri (24°23' N, 72°50' E) area of Rajasthan, the mining and metallurgy of copper, and possibly also of lead, zinc, gold and silver, commenced in the second century BC. Evidences for the continuity of the activities during Kṣatrapa period of second to fourth century AD, and again intermittently from early eleventh century AD, corresponding to Solanki period in the earliest part, are also available. (Shekar, 1983)
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The present village of Kumbaria was formerly known as Arasan, derived from Ar or metal. In the book *Sri Arasan Tirth* by Vishal Vijayji (1961) is described how ‘the treasure of metals near Arasan’ was utilised by the Solanki dynasty and subsequent rulers (1030-1619 AD), and the wealth used in constructing a series of temples at Kumbaria, Delwara etc. (Shekar, 1983: 181-82).
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The developments in India beyond 1200 AD are beyond the scope of this review, but it may be recorded that according to *Āin-i-Akbarī*, the Khetri mining area was developed and exploited during Akbar’s time (*vide* item 15, Table 17.2 and Raghunandan, 1981 and 1988). The Table 17.2 lists several copper mines in different states, which are unfortunately undated; we do not know for sure, whether mining was initiated in these before or after AD 1200.