Iron in Ancient India c6.s3: Iron in the Buddhist Temple at Bodh-Gaya
Iron in Ancient India c6.s3
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Iron in the Buddhist Temple at Bodh-Gaya
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Iron has been discovered while excavating the foundations of the celebrated stupa at Bodh-Gaya and also as clamps in the adjoining temples. As the present custom is to preserve newspapers and coins when laying foundation stones of public buildings, the ancient custom was also similar in this respect, as various coins, precious stones, metals like gold, silver, copper, iron have been discovered while excavating the foundations of old temples and monasteries. The stupa of Bodh-Gaya is a venerable one. Hoean Thsang described it in his travels.¹ The stupas have multiplied since Asoka first built a Buddhist bihār in Bodh-Gaya (3rd century B.C.). Afterwards the bihār was converted into a temple. General Cunningham was of opinion that the temple was constructed by King Huviska and that it was expanded in the fourth century. Fergusson, however, is of opinion that it was constructed in the 6th century.² However, the Asoka foundations of the stupa, on excavation, has yielded a piece of iron slag which has been preserved in the Calcutta Museum.³ This piece of iron slag is, I believe, the most ancient archaeological evidence of a historical nature of the manufacture of iron in India as early as the third century B.C. Besides the iron slag many iron clamps five or six inches long and about 1/4 inch broad have been found in the main temple and various stupas in Bodh-Gaya and preserved in the Indian Museum. They have greatly rusted. Such iron clamps have largely been used in the temples at Puri, Bhubaneswar and Konarak in Orissa from the sixth to the twelfth century. On account of the antiquity of the Bodh-Gaya temple the iron slag and the iron clamps are important in the history of the manufacture of iron in ancient India, being specimens of the 3rd century B.C. to the 6th century A.D. I am not aware of any analysis of the iron, but there is little doubt that the iron is wrought iron.
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¹ Beal's Buddhistic Records, Vol. II, pp. 118-121.
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² Fergusson, Indian and Eastern Architecture, New edition (1910), Vol. I, p. 77.
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³ Catalogue and Hand-book of Archaeological Collections in the Indian Museum by John Anderson, Part II, p. 67.
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Iron Clamps at Bodh-Gaya. (Photograph by the Author.)