Copper in Ancient India c12.25

c12.25

This fact is further borne out by the following passage in the Dhātukriyā which gives a list of places in which copper was obtained for India in the 16th century. This alchemical work mentions that copper was obtained in the following places in India viz. Nepal, Kāmrup (Gauhati), Bengal, Madaneshwar, Gangadwar, Malādri, Pābakādri, Jirnadurga and also in Mlechchha countries, in Rum, in the lands of the Feringhis (Europe) and in all mountains.² Some of the places mentioned here are difficult to identify, but it is sufficient for our purpose to note that India in the sixteenth century obtained her supply of copper from copper mines situated within her borders and also imported the commodity from foreign countries. By the sixteenth century the Portuguese (Feringhis) and other European nations began to come to India for trading purposes and it appears that copper was an article in which they had commerce with India. From the seventeenth century onwards Europe began to wake up from her slumber of intellectual atrophy of the dark middle ages and scientific research began