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Copper in Ancient India c6.s3: The Epic Age (Circa 500 B.C.—200 B.C.)

Copper in Ancient India c6.s3

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The Epic Age (Circa 500 B.C.—200 B.C.)

c6.s3.1

In the Epic Age the knowledge of copper had much advanced and we find copper designated by its modern name tāmra which occurs in the two Epics. The law-giver Manu in his Institutes gives directions for the purification of copper utensils.² Brass and bronze vessels are also referred to in the same passage. Copper finds a place amongst the six metals in the medical work of Sushruta. The other medical treatise Charaka Samhitā composed at the same time mentions brass besides copper and bronze.

c6.s3.2

² ताम्राय; कांस्यैत्त्यानां त्रपुण: सीसकस्य च । योचं यथार्हत्तव्यं काराप्रोद कवारिभि: । Manu, V, 114.

c6.s3.3

Copper is mentioned in many places in Kautilya’s Arthashāstra (3rd century B.C.) which mentions the ores of copper as heavy and green, grey and red in colour probably meaning thereby malachite, pyrites and red copper ore.¹ The Arthashāstra also mentions the use of copper in making alloys and in gold and silver coins and articles. It further describes the process of gilding by “covering the copper article with gold leaf and then polishing its outer surface and sides.”

c6.s3.4

¹ भारिकस्निग्धो मृदुश प्रस्तरधातुर्भूमिभागो वा पिङ्गमलो हरित पाटलो लोहितो वा तास्यधातु--Kautilya’s Arthashāstra, edited by Shama Sāstrī, p. 83.

c6.s3.5

From the accounts left behind by the Greek ambassador Megasthenes who visited India in 302 B.C. we learn how “vessels of Indian copper set with precious stones contributed to the brilliancy of the public ceremonies during Chandra Gupta’s reign.” From Megasthenes’ account of the court of Chandra Gupta and also from the big copper bolt discovered in the Asoka pillar near the frontiers of Nepal we can unhesitatingly say that the output of copper was quite considerable in India as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C. As we have come to historical times we shall not have the necessity of confining ourselves to purely literary evidence but would be able to produce before the readers many ancient specimens of copper from the 3rd century B.C. onwards. Before doing so we would turn our attention to the consideration of an important question, viz., whether there was a copper age in Ancient India. As the question is an important one we would discuss it in a separate chapter.

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