Copper in Ancient India c6.s1: The Vedic Age (Circa 2000 B.C.—1000 B.C.)

Copper in Ancient India c6.s1

Language: English

The Vedic Age (Circa 2000 B.C.—1000 B.C.)

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In the author's monograph entitled *Iron in Ancient India* abundant evidence has been put forward to show that iron was known to the Aryan Hindus from the earliest Vedic times, and as time went on, the Hindus perfected their metallurgical skill in working iron to such an extent that they produced the famous Delhi Pillar in the fifth century A.D. the gigantic Orissan beams, the Dhar Pillar, the Mount Abu Pillar and other notable iron monuments in later centuries. During the Moghul rule India was still a rich iron producing country as could easily be learnt from the numerous wrought iron guns and cannon of enormous calibre still existing throughout India. India again undoubtedly produced the steel from which the famous Damascus blades were made in the middle ages. In fact the history of manufacture of iron in ancient India is almost unique in the annals of the world's metallurgy of iron. After the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, European iron of a superior quality began gradually to supplant the indigenous product until as at present it wholly dominates the Indian market. But it should be remembered that before that time India was always a rich iron producing country from very early times.

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It stands to reason that proficiency of a nation in working metals cannot remain confined to one metal, and judging from the present potential minerological richness of the Indian soil it can easily be presumed that the ancient Indians were equally conversant with other metals besides iron. So far as copper is concerned, its manufacture by indigenous people and methods is at present confined to a handful of low-class and aboriginal people here and there in mountain fastnesses, but the main industry passed away several centuries ago, and copper from over-seas now completely dominates the Indian market as in the case of iron. Whilst studying the history of Indian metallurgy of any one of the metals the student or the reader will have to divorce himself from the existing circumstances and transport himself to a remote past, rich in memories of ancient greatness, not only in religion and philosophy but also in science and literature, arts and industries. The author has been convinced of the greatness of the iron industry in ancient and mediaeval India, and as regards copper, though copper is a less useful metal than iron in the sense that its chief use lies principally in coinage and making alloys like brass and bronze, existing literary and archaeological evidence points to the fact that India produced copper from the earliest times down to the seventeenth century. The history of copper is much the same as that of iron, though perhaps India produced iron on a much larger scale than copper possibly owing to geological causes—the history of the rise, development and final extinction of an industry through known and unknown causes inherent to gradually decadent national vitality.

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We would now proceed to discuss the existing literary and other evidences from the earliest epoch of Aryan civilisation in India viz. the Vedic Age.

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Copper has not been mentioned in the Rig-veda, the earliest of the Vedas. It has, however, been mentioned in the White Yajurveda as *loha* (from *lohita* or red) in a list of six metals.¹ That the word *loha* here unmistakably refers to copper is shown by the fact that this identical passage has been repeated in the Taittirya Samhitā and also in the Maitriyāni Samhitā with this difference that in the last named Samhitā the word *loha* has been replaced by the word *lohitāyas* or “red metal” meaning evidently copper.

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¹ हिरण्यं च मे अयसं मे श्यामं च मे लोहं च मे मोसं च मे लपु च मे वज्रं कश्यन्ताम्—White Yajur Veda, XVIII, 13.

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In the Atharvaveda, the last of the Vedas (being composed at Circa 1000 B.C.), copper continues to be designated as the red metal (*lohita*). In Atharva, XI, 3, 7, *lohitamaya* has been used in contrast to *śyāmamaya* or black metal, evidently iron.¹ In Atharva, VI, 141, 2, a knife made of “red metal” has been mentioned.² In addition to the word *lohita*, the modern equivalent of copper viz. *tāmra* occurs in one passage (Atharva, X, 2, 11)³ which has been translated by Whitney simply as “red” but by Griffiths as “Copper-hued.” It is doubtful if the word really meant copper, as we find that in the Brāhmans composed later than the Atharvaveda copper continues to be designated as *lohita* or *lohitāyas*. The word *tāmra* for copper appears to have become current in the 3rd century B.C. as it occurs in the ancient medical treatises of Charaka and Sushruta as well as in Kautilya’s Arthasāstra.

Linked texts (1)

Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit