Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t1.14

v1.c28.s8.t1.14

We agree with him only partially. It is true that in the pre-Gupta and Gupta Period there was an aesthetic tendency to use pure copper for making icons (Fasting Śākyamuni, No. 3, Sultanganj Buddha etc.), and after fourteenth century the use of tin dwindled giving preference to zinc. But the situation between sixth-fourteenth century AD is not as simple as Swarnakamal has proposed. If he failed to find the use of zinc in the ancient Gujarat icons before ninth century AD, it is because he chose to ignore the earlier dates suggested by the epigraphers and art scholars. Regarding lead we do not find any intermission of its use across the centuries second-fourteenth century AD as suggested by the model given by Swarnakamal; the proportions of lead in the icons merely fluctuated.