Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c38.s3.3

v2.c38.s3.3

Mehta et al. (1987) felt that kārmāra here could mean a stone-worker. Banerji (1929) however accepted Schraeder’s earlier suggestion that the hymn actually described a smithy. Banerji argued that the passage alludes to the making of carburised iron. The Ṛgvedic smith, according to Banerji, used to convert the bright quartzian magnetic stone of iron oxide to iron through reduction by the carbonaceous dried medicinal plant, and then to carburise it by fusing with birds' wings,