Iron in Ancient India c6.s7: Iron in the Gates of Somnath
Iron in Ancient India c6.s7
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Iron in the Gates of Somnath
c6.s7.1
Dr. P. C. Ray in his History of Hindu Chemistry has written "The wrought-iron pillar close to the Kutub near Delhi, which weighs ten tons² and is some 1500 years old; the huge iron girders at Puri; the ornamental gates of Somnath, and the 24 feet wrought-iron gun at Nurvar are monuments of a bye-gone art and bear silent but eloquent testimony to the marvellous metallurgical skill attained by the Hindus." The Delhi pillar and the Puri girders certainly bear 'silent but eloquent testimony' to the metallurgical skill of the Hindus, and the wrought-iron gun also does so in a certain sense, as though guns were introduced by the Mahomedans into India after the Moghul conquest, the workers in iron, as will be shown later on, were mostly Hindus. As regards the ornamental gates of the celebrated temple of Somnath carried away by Mahmood to Ghazni in 1026, the iron in the gates however cannot be regarded as a specimen of Indian iron. Fergusson says that the original gates of Somnath were made of sandal-wood and microscopic examination of the wood of the present Somnath gates, triumphantly brought back by Lord Ellenborough at the conclusion of the second Afghan War and now deposited in the Agra fort, reveals the fact that they are made of Deodar wood. Prof.
c6.s7.2
² This is a mistake. The pillar weighs about 6 tons.
c6.s7.3
Simpson, the well-known artist, says "Rude repairs are done in the gates with scraps of wood and iron."¹ As suspicion has been thrown by authoritative writers on the authenticity of the claims of the gates deposited in the Agra fort to be identical with the gates of Somnath, and even if assuming that the gates are authentic, the pieces of iron used in making rude repairs in the gates cannot be regarded as specimens of ancient Indian iron. The same mistake of regarding the iron in the Somnath (Somnali) gates as a specimen of Indian iron has been made by Dr. Kumarswamy in his work on Ceylonese Art and by Sir Robert Hadfield who has quoted his remarks.²
c6.s7.4
¹ Keene's 'Agra,' Appendix.
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² Iron in Allauddin's gates in Delhi: While visiting Northern India in 1909 I happened to observe that inside a broken place in the celebrated 'Allauddin's Daroja near the Kutub Minar at Delhi something like iron was visible. The broken place had a diameter of 2 or 3 inches and it appeared that the huge stone gates had in the inside iron plates in order to give them more strength. I mention this fact here as it may attract the notice of the Archaeological Survey of India who may examine the gates more thoroughly. The gates were constructed by the celebrated Pathan Emperor Allauddin Khilliji in 1307 or 1315 (Henry Hardy Cole's Architecture of Ancient Delhi). If my suspicion about this iron turns out to be correct, it would be a specimen of iron of the times of the Pathan rulers of Delhi.