Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c46.s1.9

v2.c46.s1.9

The Rasaśāstra texts appeared after the decline of the Gupta era, and portrayed the decadent scenes of the Tāntric period, the continued practices of zinc, brass and ferrous metallurgy, the use of mineral-based medicines and the technological contact with China through Tibet. Ray (1956: 97) believed that the knowledge of zinc metallurgy came to India from China, but this was an erroneous view. India was the first to make zinc and brass; what we learnt from the Chinese were precipitation of copper from solution by scrap iron, the arts of making paper and gunpowder, etc.