Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t5.2

v1.c28.s8.t5.2

Lo Bue (1981a: 34-37) made a beautiful analysis of the huge amount of earlier data and his own data on Tibetan icons and came up to certain valid generalisations. According to him the brass-traditions in the Western and Eastern Tibet were due to the influences from Kashmir and China respectively, whereas the Central and Southern Tibet were influenced more by the Nepalese tradition of using pure copper and gilded copper in the icons. We would like to point out that the Magadha/Pāla traditions in Bihar/Bengal were the more versatile ones encompassing the uses of copper, gilded copper, brass as well as bronze. We find very little bronze or tin in the Tibetan icons probably because the production of tin in the Hazārībāgh area (referred to as *vanga*, or the metal from Bengal, in the ninth century AD *Sarveśvararasāyana*) or the import of the metal from Burma or Malay Peninsula were insufficient so that Bengal and Bihar could hardly share it with Nepal or Tibet. On the other hand there were sufficient number of working copper mines in Nepal, and significant quantities of zinc and brass were forthcoming from the Zawar Mines in Rajasthan. What the Pāla kingdom transmitted to Tibet were principally the prevalent art traditions and the technical know-how of casting through the disciples of Dhīmān and Biṭpāla, apart from sending some copper and brass.