Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c40.s2.2

v2.c40.s2.2

The word bhraṣṭṛ in Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī 6.4.47 and 8.2.36 — meaning ‘one who roasts’ — suggests that sulphide ores were probably roasted before smelting. Samid-dṛṣada, fuel stone or firewood was mentioned by Pāṇini (5.4.106). Was it coal or lignite by chance, or some plain hard firewood? Probably it was used in the metallurgical furnace. The scholars who do not have metallurgical background may have difficulty in appreciating the link between the words pūta (cleaned, purified) and pūti (foul smelling, putrid, stinking). Copper and other sulphide minerals were purified (pūta) in the furnace or smelter which produced foul furnace (pūti) smell (gandha) of sulphur dioxide. Thus, the sulphide smelting furnace could be called pūtigandhi (Pāṇ., 5.4.135). Crude metal was further purified in crucibles. Pāṇini does not seem to mention mūṣā, the Indian word for crucible, which appeared in the post-Pāṇini literatures. However, Pāṇini mentioned sruva or ladle (6.3.115) from which liquid gushes out, and might have observed molten metal being poured from a ladle for the operation of casting in mould.