Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.2

v1.c28.s8.2

One of the reasons why we do not have many icons of the pre-Christian era is that the tradition itself of making icons whether of metal, stone or of terracotta, started somewhat late in ancient India during the spread of Buddhism. There is a collection of bronzes in the Madras Government Museum, particularly the Amarāvatī group of Buddhist bronzes datable to pre- or post-Christian era (not later than second century AD). We find Amarāvatī style bronzes from Badulla (now in Colombo Museum), several places in Malaya Peninsula and one third century AD Buddha bronze from Dong Duong in Vietnam (now in Hanoi). Nāgārjunakoṇḍa excavation have yielded a few metal figures of the period of Ikṣvākus who succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the Krishna valley towards the end of the second century AD. It was in the later half of the second century AD that the alchemist Nāgārjuna was experimenting on yellow brass as a substitute of gold in the Sātavāhana empire.