importance of later Vedic period in field of metallurgy
Answers
Answer:
The process appears to have been invented by the Hittites in about 1200 BC, beginning the Iron Age. ... A 16th century book by Georg Agricola called De re metallica describes the highly developed and complex processes of mining metal ores, metal extraction and metallurgy of the time.
Explanation:
Man and metals have an age-old relationship. Different periods of early human Civilization have been named after metals. The attributes of gold influenced the mind and heart of Indians so much so that they conferred upon the supreme spirit the designation of hirnyagarbha. It was so called, because he remains in a golden egg as an embryo. The two important sources for the History of Indian metallurgy are archaeological excavations and literary evidence. Although a considerable amount of information on this subject from the study of archaeological finds is available, literary evidence has not been studied to the extent it deserves. Unique information related to metals and metallurgy is available in different Sanskrit texts beginning with Vedic texts to medieval and pre-modern texts. There are both direct and indirect types of references. An attempt has been made here to give a glimpse of some such references.
The Rigveda has widely referred to hiranya, which is the oldest Sanskrit word for gold. It has also mentioned products made from gold, such as water vessel, necklace and visor. Chariots decorated with gold have also been mentioned. The Rigveda (10.75.8) mentioned that the river Sindhu (Indus) contains gold. The word hiranyayi was used for the river. Another Rigveda hymn (8.26.18), states that the path of the river Sindhu contains gold, and the word used for it is hiranyavartanih. It is interesting to note that Sayana translated this word as hiranmayobhayakula, i.e. both banks containing gold. The above hymns are some of the earliest indirect references to the alluvial placer gold deposits in India. The river Sindhu was an important source of gold in ancient times. It is interesting to note the references for the availability of alluvial placer gold in the river Sindhu are also reported in modern times. Tucci reported in 1977 that “there was near the Indus (Sindhu) source, as there are even now, great mines of gold in the region of the Manasarovar and in Thokjalyug”. Further, in the itinerary in Khotanese Saka from Gilgit to Chilas (written between 958 – 972 A.D.) the Indus is called Ysarnijittaji — the golden river, which is not a mere poetic attribute, but a reality.
Gold obtained from the river Jambu was called jambunanda and that from the river Ganga was called gangeya. These were also, alluvial placer gold. The Pali text Anguttara Nikaya narrated the process of the recovery of gold dust or particles from alluvial placer gold deposits in allegorical form.
The Mahabharata referred to pipilika gold (ants’ gold). Heaps of this type of gold was presented to the king Yudhishthira at the time of rajasuya yagna ceremony. Pipilika gold was powdery in nature and of high purity. It was obtained by panning the auriferous soil of ant hills formed by ants or termites as a part of their nature on the land containing placer gold deposits and hence the name ants’ gold. Kautilya described a variety of gold called rasaviddha, which was naturally occurring dissolved gold in liquid form. He stated that one pala (a measure) of this solution converts one hundred palas of silver or copper into gold, which refers to the cementation of gold on the surface of metals like silver and copper. A similar type of dissolved gold know as hatakaprabhasa was mentioned in Gandavyuhasutra. Kalidas also mentioned such gold solutions and termed it Kanaka rasa. It is astonishing to note how people recognized such gold solutions in the past.
Native gold is invariably by no means a pure metal. It contains upto 20 percent silver, copper, iron, lead, bismuth, platinum group metals and other metals, as impurities. Thus, native gold would have different colours depending upon the nature and amount of impurities present. It is logical to assume that the different colours of native gold were a major driving force for the development of gold refining process. Although, evidence of gold refining is available in Vedic texts in an allegory form, it was the Arthashastra of Kautilya, which presented it in detail.
Gold refining was a two-stage process. The first stage was the melting of impure gold alongwith lead, which removed base metal impurities, but not noble metals like silver. The second stage was to heat impure gold sheets with the soil of Sindhu State, which contained salt. The sodium chloride present in the soil reacted with silver and the resulting silver chloride absorbed in the surrounding soil. This was a solid state process, which involved diffusion of silver in impure gold and the subsequent formation of silver chloride at the gold-soil interface.
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