Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t1.1

v1.c28.s8.t1.1

In his otherwise excellent work Swarnakamal (1980) has surveyed the traditions of Gujarat in producing metallic art objects and icons. A summary of the analytical data obtained by him is presented in Table 20.4 which clearly depicts the long, almost unbroken tradition across the centuries of casting copper, bronze and brass icons in Western India. Apart from chemical estimation of the percentages of major elements, the spectroscopic data show the presence of trace elements hinting at the kinds of ore or raw material from which the metals were extracted.