Minerals and Mining in Ancient India (From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of Christian Era)

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History of science and technology has bee a much neglected aspect of study in India, so far. In recent years an interest has been shown by scholars in different aspects of ancient technologies. The present book deals with a relatively less talked about subject of ancient mining and minerals. The book discusses at length the growth of mining technology in India through the ages. It deals with almost all the different minerals that were used in the antiquity ranging from stones that form the common ones of daily usage to semi-precious and precious stones. There is a more detailed examination of ores containing the frequently ocurring metals such as copper, lead, zinc, arsenic, tin, gold, silver and iron. The question has been raised here about the ancient cultures and their resource zones. The book fulfils a lacuna in the study of minerals and their mining in ancient India. It will be equally useful for the archaeologists and the historians of ancient science and technology working in India.

Dr. Prabhakar Upadhyay is engaged in study and researches in the field of history of science and technology in ancient India for nearly a decade in Banaras Hindu University. He has done research on ancient mining and mineral resources of cultures of Ganga plains (700-600 BC to 100 BC/AD) with an ethnoarchaeological and technological angle. Presently engaged in a Department of Science and Technology (DST) sponsored project, he is working on an in-depth study of a selected area of mining and metallurgy in Sonbhadra-Sidh region. The present work incorporates certain aspects of his researches taken up recently.

Dr. Upadhyay is a dynamic young scholar with a bright academic carrier. He actively participates in academic activities in progress in recent years, especially on the archaeology and technology of Gangetic plains. He has participated in a good number of archaeological excavations, such as at Khairadih, Agiabir, Anai and explored several areas of Varanasi, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Sidhi, Singhbhum etc. He has participated and contributed in national and international seminars and symposia. His research articles are published in journals of repute.

The Indian sub-continent has a long technological history, Le. since Lower Paleolithic period. It developed in accordance with the ecosystem and the raw materials available in the respective regions, minerals being an important part of it. With advent of metallurgy, the local availability or scarcity of minerals such as copper, tin iron etc. is reflected in material remains of different cultures spread in different parts of the subcontinent. Generally, while explaining the patter of growth of material culture of a particular area, the archaeologists correlate the resource area to a well known mining zone of the subcontinent as well as old world. In the process, small deposits of different minerals are generally over looked.

The present study is an attempt to study the occurrences of different minerals, especially related to metals and traces of mining activity and also to examine the techniques applied for their procurement. Such studies are rare in archaeological parlance, therefore, we have to largely bank upon the geological literature available in form of old accounts of the British period in India. This has to be substantiated by field work in different mining zones. Although by no means it may be called an exhaustive study, it does place the issues concerned in its proper perspective and could give a glimpse of ancient mining technology.

In modern India, administrative boundaries of districts and states are frequently changing. It has considerably changed from the pre-independent India. Starting with creation of two nations, there are large numbers of newly created districts within India. The changed names of many districts may create confusion for a study like the present one where attempt has been made to locate the mineral deposits under modern administrative units. But we discovered that indeed it is a tough job.

The present study is an outcome of my long association with the field of ancient mining and metallurgy since 1997-98: first working as a Ph.D. student up to 2003 and then as a Senior Research Fellow in DST Project. I, therefore, deeply acknowledge the assistance that I received from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Both the works were done under the able guidance of my Guru Ji, Prof. Vibha Tripathi of the Department of AIHC & Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University. I can not recount the amount of help, guidance and support which I constantly received from her all these years. In fact, the present study is a contribution of her to the subject of ancient history in which I played a role of an instrument only. I feel deeply indebted to her in true Indian spirit of Guru Shishya tradition.

The affiliation of Archaeology as a discipline is a bit difficult to define. In the West in many universities it is part of Anthropology. In Europe some universities include it under Sciences, but in India it is generally affiliated with the departments of ancient history. There is no doubt that the analytical and dating techniques that archaeology uses pertain to sciences. In India the problem of the Two Cultures is more acute and therefore though the archaeologists use analytical and chronological data, they don't want to get into the nitty-gritty of technologies involved. Archaoemetallurgy is as much a part of archacology as much of metallurgy. It is heartening to see that Prof. Vibha Tripathi, though an archaeologist, has specialised in ancient metallurgy of iron as well. It is nice to see that her students are carrying forward her mission. Thus Prabhakar Upadhyay, a student of Tripathi, has come out with this new book, Minerals and Mining in Ancient India.

On a limited scale these minerals were covered by the earlier books like The Copper Bronze Age in India (D P Agrawal 1971), Copper and Its Alloys in Ancient India (Chakrabarti and Lahiri 1994), The Age of Iron in South Asia (Tripathi 2001) etc. Most of these books are old now, and none of them deals exclusively with only minerals in an archaeological context. It is therefore good to see that Dr. Upadhyay has made this important contribution to the published corpus on Archaoemetallurgy. His work assumes greater significance as it specialises in only mining and minerals, and thus fills in a big lacuna in this field. In this book he covers different aspects of mining in detail; he deals with not only metals but also semi precious stones and diamonds. He has extensively used published literature and also ancient texts. In addition, he has carried out extensive field surveys. He has been able to cover the important metals like copper, lead, zine, arsenic and tin. He has also devoted a full chapter to Iron. The noble metals - gold and silver - have also been discussed in a separate chapter. The book thus provides a wealth of up to date data on the minerals and mining. He takes pains in explaining simple terms on mining and metallurgy to layman and archaeologists too. As far as I know this is one of the rarest contributions from a young archaeologist in this neglected field and is therefore most welcome. I am sure this book will prove a trend setter for the younger generation of archaeologists. Indian archaeology does need more such interdisciplinary studies.

**Contents and Sample Pages**