Iron in Ancient India c6.s8.44

c6.s8.44

We bring to a close our history of ancient Indian iron specimens with the seventeenth century, as from the eighteenth century European nations began to assert more and more political supremacy over India, and European enterprise and commerce began gradually to supplant the indigenous industries. The scientific spirit of enquiry in India was gradually on the wane from the twelfth or thirteenth century, if not earlier, and by the seventeenth century was almost completely decadent, though old processes continued in the absence of foreign competition. On the other hand, after the gloom and torpor of the Middle Ages, Europe began to pulsate by the seventeenth century with a new spirit of scientific enquiry which increased in volume and intensity every year. This spirit began to permeate and influence manufacture and commerce in an ever-increasing measure, and within a century or two European manufacture almost completely supplanted Indian industries of almost every description. So far as the iron industry is concerned, the old processes continued, though on an infinitely smaller scale, and in fact still continue in many places even now, being relegated to the lowest and illiterate classes, until, as at present, iron of European manufacture completely dominates the Indian market.