Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t6.3

v1.c28.s8.t6.3

At the request of the then Chinese emperor, the Pallava king Narasimhavarman second (AD 695-722) built a Buddhist monastery at Nagapattinam (10° 45' N, 79° 50' E) in the Thanjavur district. This monastery must have received considerable financial patronage for making Buddhist icons; one Vaiṣṇava Ālvār of the eighth-ninth century AD period is reported to have gone to Nagapattinam, “stolen a solid gold Buddha image and melted it away to defray the cost of the renovation of the Ranganātha temple of Śrīraṅgam”. (Mitra, 1980: 190-97) During this period two important persons flourished in India: the great Hindu saint Śaṅkara (AD 788-839), probably not the Ādi-Śaṅkara of Kerala but the Abhinava Śaṅkara born at Chidambaram (near Nagapattinam) and head of the Kāñcīpuram Maṭh, and the Pāla king of Magadha, Dharmapāla (AD 783-818). Both the names are relevant to our studies on minerals and metals in ancient India.