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Iron in Ancient India c10: Chapter VII. Cast Iron

Iron in Ancient India c10

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Chapter VII. Cast Iron

c10.2

That cast iron was known in ancient India is undoubted. It has already been pointed out that three distinct varieties of iron, viz. "munda," "tikshna" and "kānta," meaning respectively cast iron, steel and wrought iron, are mentioned in the Tantrik works of the thirteenth or fourteenth century such as *Rasaratna-samucchaya* and *Rasendra-shār-samgraha*. We would draw prominent attention to the description of three varieties of "munda" iron in the *Rasaratna-samucchaya* which are undoubtedly varieties of cast iron, "that which *easily melts*, does not break and is glossy is *mridu*; that which expands *with difficulty* when struck with a hammer is known as *kuntha*; that which *breaks* when struck with a hammer and has a black fracture is *kadāra*."

c10.3

It is, however, undoubted that wrought iron and steel were mainly produced in India, and as Lester¹ says, "Cast iron was produced in India only by accident." Cast iron guns were cast in England in 1543 while in India such guns appear to have been cast in the eighteenth century, these being very probably introduced into India from Europe. It has already been pointed out that during the manufacture of cast iron, pure iron takes up carbon at about 1000°-1400°, which temperature was very seldom attained in the Indian furnaces owing to insufficient blast.

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¹ "Iron and Coal Trades Review," Vol. LXXX III, 561.

c10.5

Cast iron rusts much more quickly than wrought iron and ancient specimens cannot well be looked for unless large blocks of such iron should remain buried. A remarkable block of such iron has a few years ago been unearthed by the Rungpur Shāhitya Parishad in the ruins of Bhabachandra-pāt, the old capital of king Bhabachandra, near Rungpur. The block with fragments weighed about one and a half maund (about 120 lbs). A sample was sent to the author for examination. Though its exterior was rusted, its interior when freshly broken was bright and crystalline. It broke at the first stroke of the hammer and when the bright powder was kept for several days only it was heavily rusted. When the metal was dissolved in dilute acid a quantity of black carbon remained behind and the issuing hydrogen had the foetid smell characteristic of cast iron. The result of analysis of a sample is given below :—

c10.6

| Iron | .. | .. | 96·42 per cent. |
| Total carbon | .. | .. | 2·81 ,, ,, |
| Manganese | .. | .. | ·21 ,, ,, |
| | | | 99·44 |

c10.7

This specimen of cast iron is unique so far as India is concerned, as specimens of wrought iron alone are abundant in India. No exact date can be assigned to King Bhabachandra. His name has passed current in Bengali fable as a foolish king having a foolish minister named Habachandra. The ruins of Bhabachandra-pāt are very old and it is supposed that it was the capital of a dynasty of Hindu kings before the Mahomedan conquest. The specimen may be dated from the eighth to the tenth century A.D.

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