Iron in Ancient India c9.s2.8

c9.s2.8

It would interest readers to learn in what parts of India itself, which supplied the steel for making Damascus blades, swords were manufactured. We find a list of such places in *Yukti-kalpataru*, which has already been referred to as a manuscript of the eleventh century, which says that swords were manufactured in Benares, Magadha, Ceylon, Nepal, Anga, Mysore, Surat and Orissa (Kalinga) and describes the qualities of the swords manufactured in the various places.¹ We have found a similar reference in *Śārangadhar-Paddhati*, a work undoubtedly composed in the fourteenth century by the alchemist Śārangadhar. In it we find that in the fourteenth century the following places were noted for the manufacture of swords, viz. Khatikhattara, Rishi, Banga (Bengal), Shurporaka, Videha (Mithilā or Tirhut), Anga (Bhāgulpur), Madyamā-grām, Bedidesha, Sahagrām, and Kalinjar, and that swords manufactured in China were "faultless and pure."' In *Shārangadhar Padhati* as well as in *Yukti-kalpataru* long chapters on the dimensions and qualities of swords as well as on varieties of iron and their different colours have been inserted.