Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t1.10

v1.c28.s8.t1.10

Both the Meditative Buddha of Mathurā style (No. 4) and the Amarāvatī style dancer pair (No. 5) belong to the same age and significantly contain the same percentage of tin. The latter however contains 6.4 per cent lead also which was a deliberate addition. We may recall that the Andhra Sātavāhanas and Kṣtrapas introduced lead coinage in the country. Swarnakamal (1980: 60-61) has drawn our attention to the object no. 6, an Indo-Pārthian figure assaying 7.6 per cent zinc, a Roman brass jar-handle found at Akota and a brass Atlas statuette recovered from Samalaji, and then wrongly concluded that these items, like the Taxilian brass, ‘came from outside India’. Such a conclusion must be rejected in view of our earlier discussions on zinc ore mining, zinc metal and brass artefacts in ancient India. (vide chapters 17 and 18)