Copper in Ancient India c6.s1.2

c6.s1.2

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.