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Iron in Ancient India c4: Chapter I. Iron in the Vedic Age (circa 2000—1000 B.C.)

Iron in Ancient India c4

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Chapter I. Iron in the Vedic Age (circa 2000—1000 B.C.)

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¹ Prof. Hermann Jacobi from astronomical calculations is inclined to push the beginning of the Vedic age so far back as 4000 B.C. We have, however, adopted here the more moderate estimate of the antiquity of the Vedic age. Prof. Max Müller is of opinion that the Vedas represent the most ancient writings in he world.

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The revival of iron industry in modern India under the auspices of the Bengal Iron and Steel and the Tata Iron and Steel Companies leads naturally to the question whether the present industry, which promises so much in the near future, is entirely a new venture in India or is a revival of past ventures in this direction. India is known to the West primarily as the abode of an ancient civilization rich in ethical and philosophical doctrines, but the fact that Indian civilization was rich in material progress also is slowly but steadily being brought to the notice of the world at large. So far as the present subject is concerned, a careful study of the available literature and archaeological evidence will easily convince any student that India had always been in the past, as it promises to be in the near future, a rich iron-producing country. Well has Sir John Hickshaw said in his presidential address to the British Association Meeting at Bristol in 1875 that "the supply of iron in India, as early as the fourth and fifth centuries, seems to have been unlimited. India well repaid any advantages which she may have derived from the early civilized communities of the West if she were the first to supply them with iron and steel." Shaw maintains that "the hardest tools in ancient Egypt, such as drills for working the granite obelisks, were made of Indian iron" and it was again from India, as will be shown later on, that the Persians and afterwards the Arabs and the Europeans learnt the tempering of steel, the best specimens of which were the famous Damascus blades of the Middle Ages. Roscoe and Schorlemmer in their well-known "Treatise on Chemistry" have written "it appears probable that iron was first obtained from its ores in India." They further say "the word iron, which is identical with the Scandinavian 'iarn' (instead of 'isarn') and German 'eisen' (adjective 'eisern') appears to be connected with the Sanskrit 'ayas' (Latin 'aes'), and this, according to Grimm, is an indication that bronze was in use amongst the Germans at a much earlier date than iron."

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Ethnographists usually divide the age of using implements of warfare into principally three divisions, viz. stone age, bronze age and iron age. Such a division might be tenable in the case of European countries but hardly applicable in the case of India which was colonized by the Aryans possessing a very high order of civilization at a very early age. It is true that implements of the stone age are found scattered in Chota Nagpur, Central Provinces and other parts of India, but it seems that these stone implements were mostly used by the aboriginal, Palæolithic and Neolithic, people who inhabited India before the Aryan Conquest and whose descendants are the Kols, Bhils and other aboriginal tribes of modern India. In India the use of bronze as material for making arms was never extensive, and weapons made of bronze are scarcely to be found, though Vincent Smith is disposed to maintain that there was a copper age in India prior to the iron age.¹ Vincent Smith, however, places the limit of the copper age at 1000 B.C., which falls easily in the Vedic age when, as will be shown later on, the use of iron was well known.

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¹ Vincent Smith, Indian Antiquary, 1905, Vol. xxxiv, p. 236.

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There is even a considerable difference of opinion about the general question whether bronze really preceded iron. The well-known metallurgist Dr. John Percy in his well-known treatise entitled "Metallurgy of Iron and Steel" held, and I think very rightly, that the use of bronze cannot really precede the use of iron. The preparation of bronze would presuppose the knowledge of the metallurgy at least of two metals, viz. copper and tin, whilst the use of iron requires the knowledge of the metallurgy of one metal only. Moreover, as Dr. Percy points out, the metallurgy of iron is very simple—"if a lump of red or brown hæmatite be heated for some time in a charcoal fire, well surrounded by or embedded in the fuel, it will be more or less completely reduced so as to admit of being easily forged at a red heat into a bar of iron." Mr. St. John V. Day, the author of "The Prehistoric use of Iron and Steel," also maintains that the use of iron preceded the so-called bronze age. At any rate so far as India is concerned there cannot be distinguished a distinct age called the bronze age, and the Aryan conquerors seem to have known the use of iron from their very first habitation in the Punjab, as can be gleaned from the frequent mention of iron in Vedic literature.

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The word "Ayas" frequently occurs in the Rig and other Vedas. It means "iron" and has been translated as such by the great commentator Sāyana, Prof. Max Müller, Griffiths, Wilson, R. C. Dutt, the author of Bāchaspatya Lexicon, and others, though Sāyana in some passages has taken it to mean "gold" also. On the other hand Macdonell and Keith in their "Vedic Index" suppose it to mean "bronze," perhaps being influenced by the theory that bronze preceded iron in India also.¹ They argue "as favouring the sense of 'bronze' rather than that of 'iron' may perhaps be cited with Zimmer (Altindisches Leben, 52) the fact that Agni is called 'Ayo-damstra,' with the teeth of ayas, (Rig. I, 88, 5; X, 87, 2) with reference to the colour of his flames, and that the car-seat of Mitra and Varuna is called 'aya-sthuna' (Rig. V. 62, 8) with 'pillars of ayas' at the setting of the sun (but this is not convincing, as in the same verse it is said to be of 'golden appearance at the flash of dawn' (footnote)." I have been at some pains to consult the original text, specially Sāyana's commentary, and am afraid that Macdonell and Keith's argument cannot stand. As regards "ayo-damstra" in Rig. I, 88, 5, it is an adjective of "barāhūn,"¹ the passage being translated by Max Müller as "wild boars rushing about with iron tusks." I am completely at a loss how it may be taken to refer to the colour of flames. There are, however, other passages in which the word has been used as an adjective of Agni, for example in Rig. X, 87, 2, where Wilson translates it as "teeth of iron." The same passage occurs in Atharv. VIII, 3, 2, in which Whitney translates the word as "tusks of iron." The adjective evidently refers to the sharpness of the tongues of flames and not to their colour. Then as regards "ayo-sthuna" in Rig. V, 62, 8 (and also in Rig. V, 62, 7)² we find that Shāyana has rendered "ayas" as "gold." This rendering is in full agreement with what Macdonell and Keith mention "as golden appearance at the flash of dawn." In any case in this or similar passages we may safely take the rendering of the scholiast of "ayas" as "gold" as fully authoritative. There is absolutely no justification for bringing in the idea of "bronze."

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¹ Vedic Index, pp. 31 and 32.

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¹ The original passage is "अयो दंष्ट्रान् विधावतः वराहम्"।

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² Shāyana comments thus: "स्थूणाः कीलकादयोवा चिरखनामेतत् अयोविकारा इत्यर्थः । अयोमयो वा । Mr. R. C. Dutt translates as "iron bolts" (लोहकीलकाः)।

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But it is undoubted that 'ayas' in by far the largest number of passages in the Rigveda means "iron" and not "gold." In Rig. VI, 47, 10 and VI, 3, 5 occurs the passage 'ayasho na dhārām'³ which is explained by Shāyana as 'shower of iron swords or javelins.' In Rig. VII, 95, 1⁴ occurs the passage 'āyashī pūh' or 'iron city,' which, though not to be taken literally, means a safe place, and shows that the ancient Aryans were perfectly familiar with the strength and hardness of iron. The same words 'iron city' occur in another passage, Rig. VII, 15, 14.⁵ The picture of 'iron melter or blacksmith melting iron in his forge' is given in Rig. IV, 2, 17 and Rig. VI, 3, 4.⁶ We find in Rig. VI, 75, 15 that arrows were tipped with iron.¹ Hardness of iron is again referred to in Rig. I, 163, 9 where we read the description of a horse " with golden manes and iron feet and fast as mind²." From the passages quoted above it is evident that the use of iron and of iron weapons was well known in the Rigveda.

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³ "अयसो न धारां"। In Rig. VI, 47, 10 Shāyana explains the passage as "अयोमयस्य खड्गादेर्धारासिव" and in Rig. VI, 3, 5, as "अयोमयस्य परश्वादेर्धारां"।

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⁴ Rig. VII, 95, 1, "आयसी पूः"

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⁵ Rig. VII, 15, 14, "यथा मघो न चायसानाहतो वपीयते पूर्वैवा शतभुजिः"।

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⁶ Rig. IV, 2, 17—"सुकर्मानः सुवचो देवयज्ञियो न देवा जनिमा धमतः"। This passage is commented upon by Shāyana as follows: "यथा कम्मारा अयो धमेव"

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¹ Rig. VI. 75, 15, "यस्या वधिसूर्य" which is commented upon by Shāyana as "यस्या रमोसेधमयोऽयोमयं भवति"।

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² Rig. I, 163, 9 "चिरश्वाश्वेगोऽथो चस्य पादा मनोजवा अबर इदं चासीत् ।

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In the Black Yajurveda³ is mentioned a remarkable kind of fire-weapon called Sūrmī which is defined by the commentator Shāyana as a "burning iron barrel." It is described as having a long bore inside the barrel and with its help hundreds could be killed at a time. The mention of an iron fire-weapon in Vedic literature shows the high quality of civilization prevalent amongst the ancient Aryan settlers.

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³ इमा वै सूर्मो कर्षेकावत्येमयाऽऽ वै देवा असुरारां शतधरां सूर्मि । Black Yajurveda, I, 5, 6, 7. Shāyana comments on the above thus "ज्वलन्ती लोहमयी सूर्मि सूक्ष्मो । सा च कर्षेकावती छिद्रवती, यतस्त्र ज्वलन्तो । शतेन प्रधारैय शतसंख्याकान मारयन्तः सूराः शतधरां । असुरारां मध्ये तादृशान रत्या चा देवाः सा चिंषन्ति"।

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In the White Yajurveda occurs the following passage in which six metals have undoubtedly been mentioned, viz. 'hira-nya,' 'ayas,' 'shyām,' 'loha,' 'sīsa' and 'trapu.'⁴ On further enquiry I find that the same passage occurs in the Taittiriya Samhita⁵ and also in the Maitrāyanī Samhita,⁶ with this difference that in the last-named Samhitā the word 'loha' has been replaced by the word 'lohitāyas' or 'red metal' meaning evidently copper. There is no difference of opinion regarding the meaning of 'sīsa' and 'trapu' which mean lead and tin respectively, but commentators are hopelessly at variance in their interpretations of 'ayas,' 'shyām' and 'loha.'⁷ After reading these

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⁴ हिरण्य मे चयस मे श्यामं मे लोहच मे सीसञ्च मे त्रपुच मे यज्ञेन कल्पन्ताम् । XVIII, 13.

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⁵ तैत्तिरीय संहिता, IV, 7, 5, 1.

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⁶ मैत्रायणी संहिता, II, 11, 4, 5.

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⁷ Mahidhar comments in the following manner on the passage in the White

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धमन्ति नदत्" । In Rig. VI. 3, 4 we have "इवि: न द्रावयति" meaning as a melter causes to melt.' commentaries I have formed the opinion that the passage refers to the following six metals, viz. silver (hiranya), gold (ayas), iron (shyām), copper (loha), lead (sisa) and tin (trapu). The word ‘hiranya’ ordinarily means gold, but as the commentator Mahidhar points out that it means ‘silver’ also, I have preferred this meaning in order to make sense. Sāyana in many passages has taken ‘ayas’ for gold, and I have adopted his interpretation here. The word ‘shyām’ meaning ‘black’ evidently means iron, and the word ‘loha’ or ‘lohitāyas’ means, as has been pointed out, copper.

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The most prolific mention of ‘iron’ or ‘ayas’ occurs in the Atharvaveda, the latest of the four Vedas. I would give below several amongst many such passages of the text together with Whitney’s translation, which is the most literal of all translations of the Atharvaveda. In the passage Atharv. XI, 3, 1, 7¹ the word ‘shyamamaya’ is explained by Sāyana as ‘black metal’ or iron and the word ‘lohita’ as ‘red metal’ or copper. Whitney also remarks that ‘‘that is doubtless iron and copper respectively.’’ In Atharv. V, 28, 1, while describing a formula for an amulet of three metals, ‘harita’ (gold), ‘rajata’ (silver) and ‘ayas’ (iron) are mentioned.² In VI, 63, 2 ‘bond-fetters of iron’ are mentioned and in the next verse (VI, 63, 3) ‘iron post’ is referred to.³ The word ‘‘ayodamstra’’ in VIII, 3, 2 has been rendered by Whitney as ‘‘thou of iron tusks,’’ applying the epithet to Agni or fire. ‘‘Ayojālā’’ in XIX, 66, 1 has been translated by Whitney as ‘metal nets’ and ‘ayashmayena ankena’ in VII, 115, 1 as ‘‘with hooks of metal’’; they can, however, be more appropriately translated as ‘iron nets’ and ‘iron hooks’ respectively. It

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¹ Atharvaveda, XI, 3, 1, 7. श्यामसीव्य मांसानि जोषितमस्य जोषितं।

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² हरितं चोचि रजते चोखयसि चोचि तपसारिखितानि। Atharv V, 28, 1.

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³ नमोऽस्तुते निर्ऋते तिग्मतेजोऽयश्मायाभिः कृता वन्धपाशान—VI, 63, 2 ‘‘homage be to thee, O Nirrti, thou of keen keenness; unfasten the bond-fetters of iron.’’ अयश्मये इपरे वंधिष इचाभिहितो यत्यधिषेसंदसम् (VI, 63, 3)—‘‘thou wast bound here to an iron post bridled with deaths that are a thousand.’’

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Vajurveda ‘‘हिरण्यं सुवर्णं रजतं वा द्वयोनाकृष्योत्याभिधानात्। अथो लोहं। श्यामं लोहं कांस्यं रजतं कनकं वा। लोहं कालायसे’’ Mādhabāchārya in his commentary on the Taittiriya Samhita says, ‘‘श्यामं कृष्णायसम्। लोहं कांस्यताचादि’’ Macdonell and Keith have rendered ‘ayas’ as ‘bronze’ (Vedic Index pp. 31-32).

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will readily be seen that in the passages quoted from the Atharvaveda, the sense of iron makes more complete sense than any other metal. There can remain scarcely any doubt of the use of iron in Vedic times in various directions.

Iron in the Brahman Age (circa 1000 B.C.-500 B.C.)

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In the Brāhmans and Upanishads, which belong to Vedic literature though later in date than the Vedas, the latest date of their composition being 800 B.C. to 500 B.C., we find that the word 'ayas' has been completely differentiated into 'kṛiṣṇāyas' or black metal and 'lohitāyas' or red metal. Iron is thus referred to as 'kṛiṣṇāyas' or 'kārṣṇāyas' in Chāndogya Upanishad IV, 17, 7; VI, 1, 5; in Jaimini Upanishad Brāhmana III, 17, 3, in Taittiriya Brāhmana III, 62, 6, 5 and other places.¹ The distinction between iron and copper is explicit and complete.

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¹ Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index.

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