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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c26.s5: Literary Evidences on Zinc and Brass in Ancient India

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c26.s5

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Literary Evidences on Zinc and Brass in Ancient India

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The literary evidences on the above subject, discussed in several chapters of our monograph, may be briefly summarised at this point. We have mentioned earlier in this chapter the pseudo-Aristotelian work ‘On Marvellous Things Heard’ referring to ‘gold-like bronze’ or brass of the Indians during the reign of Darius. The Greek’s ‘oreichalcos’ was equivalent to Kauṭilya’s ārakūṭa. (Arthaśāstra, 2.12.23, 2.17.14, 4.1.35) Both Kauṭilya and the earliest Indian brass of Taxila belonged to fourth century BC, while the earliest C-14 dating of the Zawar Mine is 430 ± 100 BC.

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The technical term ārakūṭa for brass persisted through centuries and we find this mentioned in the fourth century AD Jaina text Aṅgavijja (as hārakūḍa) and also in Amarakosa (AD 450).

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A more popular name for brass in the ancient India has been riti or ritikā which also meant calx of brass. The word was probably derived from harita or yellow which had been a synonym for gold in the Vedic literature. The word was chosen on account of the yellow colour of gold-like brass. Caraka Saṃhitā of third century BC refers to riti (Sūtrasthān, 5.26) and ritikā (Siddhisthān, 3.4) amongst other metals and alloys. The writings of Manu, Yājñavalkya and Patañjali of the pre-Christian era sometimes refer to bronze (kāṃsya) and brass (ritikā) almost synonymously.

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During the first century AD the Roman traders wrote about Indian brass (vide our chapter 16). While the Periplus used the Greek term oreichalcos (mountain copper) for brass, Pliny mentioned about aurichalcum (golden copper) made in India from cadmia, identified as calamine or the zinc ore. Samuel Beal suggested that the name cadmia came from Calamina, a port at the mouth of the Indus, which negotiated the export of the ore or the alloy of zinc. Ball (1886-87: 331) however suggested that the port was Calliana or Kalyāṇa near Bombay. The sixth century AD traveller Sopater mentioned about Calliana exporting brass.

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Philostratus of Lemons, writing around AD 230, mentioned a shrine in Taxila (presumably Buddhist) in which “the various figures were portrayed in a mosaic of orichalcum (brass), silver, gold and oxidized copper”. A much more significant fact related to Indian brass of this era is the advent of the alchemist Nāgārjuna.

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We would be presenting (in Vol. II chapter 8) our view that Nāgārjuna, the Indian alchemist was a contemporary of the Sātavāhana king Yajñaśrī Gautamīputra (AD 166-203), and therefore his Rasaratnākara must have been originally a second century AD text although what we have today is possibly a version edited during a later period such as the seventh century AD. We have provided in the earlier footnote in this chapter the second century AD. Rasaratnākara reference to cementation and distillation processes for making brass. The details of the said Sanskrit text and similar texts on zinc and brass from Rasārṇava (twelfth century AD), Rasaprakāśasudhākara, Rasacintāmaṇi, Rasakalpa (thirteenth century AD) and Rasaratnasamuccaya (fourteenth century AD) would be presented in the chapters 8 and 9, Vol. II of this monograph.

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The early sixth century AD text Bṛhatsaṃhitā of Varāhamihira (BS, 57. 1-7) described several vajra-lepa or cement recipes, one of them containing ritikā or calyx of brass. During the same century, Sopater, a traveller, mentioned about the port of Kalyāṇa exporting brass.

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When Hiuen-Tsang visited India (629-645 AD) he found many statues made of teou-shih or brass: standing Buddha at Bamiyan, cast in small pieces and then joined together, the image of sun-god in Multan, statues in the kingdom of Takka on the river Vipāśā, some near the Kulu province, Māyāpura or Haridvāra, Garhwal and Kumāun areas, brass statues of Śiva in Vārāṇasī, of Buddha in Vaiśālī, the famous brass statue of Buddha in Bodh-Gayā, ‘ornamented with rare jewels’, and lastly the brass vihāra of Nalanda referred to earlier. We have also mentioned the sixth century AD brass statue at Fatehpur near Kangrakot.

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Thus it is clear that by the seventh century AD India had well-established traditions in brass-making. (We would provide some analytical data in our chapter 20). Hiuen-Tsang recorded the tradition of the alchemist Nāgārjuna having made four brass statues of Buddha for the Sātavāhana empire which had fallen short of gold; we would establish in our Vol. II chapter 8 that the event had taken place in the second century AD.

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Analyses of Indian copper alloys (Werner 1972) and a series of analyses of Tibetan material (Riederer 1979; Craddock 1981) showed that brass was used almost exclusively from the seventh century AD. We have already mentioned the seventh century AD. Samoli inscription referring to fresh initiation of mining at Zawar. The five richly adorned Jain temples of thirteenth century AD Zawar testify the existence of a thriving community which initiated zinc smelting on a commercial scale. Discovery at Zawar of 29 silver coins in the soil burying ancient furnace proves that such coins were minted in AD 1593 during the era of Rāṇā Pratāp and Akbar.

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The Rasaśāstra texts initiated in the seventh century AD were related to the medicines of vegetable origin and those made out of metallic salts. These texts described smelting of metals and preparation of metallic oxides. The detailed references to the reduction of zinc ore and distillation of zinc metal, which were made in the thirteenth century AD Rasasāstra texts and fourteenth century AD text Rasaratnasamuccaya, shall be presented in the chapters 8 and 9 respectively of our Vol. II. It is significant that there was a spurt of smelting activity in the Zawar area around thirteenth century AD, and we would now present the newly discovered details of the ancient zinc distillation practices in Zawar.

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