Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c39.s7.3

v2.c39.s7.3

Similarly, we find only casual references to brick-making in the ritual contexts. Ś. Brā., 6.1.2.22 records: ‘baking the brick (raw material) amounts to oblation (to god through fire); bricks are produced from what is offered to fire-god (iṣṭa), therefore these are called iṣṭaka (bricks)’. Glass or faience heads used to decorate the horse’s tail during the famous aśvamedha sacrifice (Ś.Brā., 13.2.6.8). Mica powder was used as a degraissant in the Harappan potteries. But we do not know whether mica was specifically known as abhra in the Vedic literature Ś.Brā., 7.5.2.48 refers to, and defines cloud as abhra: