Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s6.7

v2.c41.s6.7

Copper ores were stated (2.12.12) to be ‘heavy, greasy, tawny (chalcopyrite left exposed to air, tarnishes), green (colour of malachite), dark blue with yellowish tint (azurite), pale red or red (native copper)’. Lead ores were stated to be (2.12.13) grayish black, like *kākamecaka* (this is the colour of galena), yellow like pigeon bile (lead ore gossan), marked with white lines (quartz or calcite gangue minerals) and smelling like raw flesh (odour of sulphur). Tin ores could be (2.12.14) grey like saline earth (witherite?) or brown like burnt earth (cassiterite). Iron ore was known (2.12.15) to be greasy stone, pale red colour (orange limonite) or of the colour of the *sinduvāra* flower (hematite). Lahiri (1968, 1971) commented that ‘the rock with greasy feel seems to be phyllite, and that with the pale red colour, jasper’. This matches with the characteristic of the bedded iron ores of Bihar and Orissa.