Copper in Ancient India c6.s1.1

c6.s1.1

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.