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Copper in Ancient India c10.s4: Recognition of Brass as an Alloy

Copper in Ancient India c10.s4

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English

Recognition of Brass as an Alloy

c10.s4.1

It has already been pointed out that in Europe Kunkel at the end of 17th century recognised brass as an alloy. In India, however, this fact must have been recognised as early as the 13th century as it has been mentioned as such in alchemical works of this century. Yasodhar, author of Rasaprakāsh-Sudhākar writes “*saurāstra*, brass and *vartalauha* are three alloys (*misralauha*).”¹ The author of Rasaratna-samuchchaya also says “bronze, brass and *varta* are the three *misralauha*.”² That brass came to be regarded as an alloy four centuries earlier than in Europe need not cause surprise as zinc itself was distilled, as shown before, several centuries earlier in India. Bhāvmisra the author of *Bhāvaprakāsha* (16th century) writes that brass is a semi-metal (*updhātu*) of zinc and copper,³ as it is derived from these two metals.

c10.s4.2

¹ स मित्रलीहत्रितयं सौराष्ट्रोरितिवर्त्तकाः । Rasaprakāsh-sudhākar. *Saurāstra* here evidently means bronze as the best bronze was obtained from Surāstra (Surat). cf. “कांस्यं तम् सौराष्ट्रं शुभम्” (Rasaratna-samuchchaya). Its other and more common meaning viz. alum is evidently out of place here.

c10.s4.3

² तित्रं मोहं त्रितयमुदितं मित्तलं कांस्यं वर्त्तं—Rasaratna-samuchchaya, V. I

c10.s4.4

³ रीतिर प्पुमधातुः स्यात्तावस्य यशदस्य च—Bhāvaprakāsha.

c10.s4.5

Though the alchemical works of this century make mention of brass as an alloy, they however, do not definitely state that it was an alloy of zinc. It has only been mentioned as an alloy of zinc in alchemical works of the sixteenth century such as Bhāvaprakash, Dhātukriā and others.⁴ The reason for this is not far to seek. It is owing to the fact that zinc was not generally recognised, as has already been pointed out, as a metal before that century. As has already been mentioned, though Madanpāla was aware of its metallic nature in the fourteenth century, zinc was not universally recognised in India as a metal until the sixteenth century. It may therefore be contended that though brass was distinctly recognised as an alloy in the thirteenth century, it was distinctly recognised as an alloy of zinc in the sixteenth century. Even then India can lay a priority of claim of the discovery of the chemical nature of brass by at least a century, as it was at the end of the seventeenth century only that Kunkel recognised brass as an alloy and Homberg recognised “zinc as the metal from blende.”

c10.s4.6

⁴ रीतिरपुमधातुः सात्तावस्य यशदस्य च—Bhāvaprakāsha. शुल्बर्मरसंयोगे जावते पित्तलं शुभम्—Dhātukriyā. शुल्चर्मरसंयोगे नारौधातुस्तु जायते—Ibid.

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