Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c27.s1.1

v1.c27.s1.1

Herodotus wrote that the Indians in the Persian army were equipped with cane arrows tipped with iron. Many such arrowheads were found in the contemporary sites of Ujjain and Kauśāmbī. Some of these were surface carburised. The Greek physician Ctesias referred to ‘two magical swords of Indian iron’, but Pleiner (1971) points out that the text is not clear whether the swords were actually Indian or merely made of Indian iron.