Copper in Ancient India c8.s2.9

c8.s2.9

The same fact is borne out by another gigantic copper colossus of Buddha image, *no less than 80 feet in height*, described by the celebrated Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsiang who actually saw it standing upright towards the east of the great Nalanda convent¹. Hiuen-Tsiang asserts that “a pavillion of six stages is required to cover” this gigantic copper colossus which in dimensions would approach the bronze colossus of the Rhodes Island. It was the work of Raja Purnavarman, the last descendant of king Asoka, a king of the seventh century.¹ The Rhodes colossus was destroyed by lightning, but history does not record the manner in which this less-known wonder of the world has gone out of sight from India. At any rate this gigantic colossus deserves special mention in the world's history of metallurgy of copper as a very remarkable specimen of copper work of the seventh century.