Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T17:50:45.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some Ethnographic Aspects of the Ancient Copper-Bronze Tradition in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Nayanjot Lahiri
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The alloying and distribution pattern of early Indian copper and copper-based artefacts and the occurrence of ingots in some archaeological contexts have been variously discussed in Indian archaeological literature. First, the presence of pure copper artefacts in early Indian archaeological contexts is considered to be symptomatic of the scarcity of alloying agents. For instance, D. P. Agrawal has argued that the presence of 70% of pure copper objects among the analysed Harappan artefacts in this metal is reflective of a problem in the procurement of tin; since this metallic ore was not easily available, evidence of copper alloying is scarce. Secondly, the variations in element composition of alloyed artefacts have generally been regarded as evidence of incomplete knowledge of mixing – E. J. H. Mackay's argument that “mixing of the two metals was performed in a most perfunctory manner ” to explain the variations in the average proportions of tin to copper in Mohenjodaro specimens is evocative of this general approach. Thirdly, not many sites which have yielded copper objects have yielded any positive evidence of manufacture – in some cases this may be due to the limited nature of the excavated data, but on the whole one would argue that the sites which can be described as centres of copper metallurgy are comparatively few and far between in the Indian context. Fourthly, the occurrence of copper ingots at different sites has been generally taken to be indicative of trade in this metal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1993 , pp. 219 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The Copper Bronze Age in India (Delhi, 1971), p. 168.Google Scholar

2 Chanhu-Daro Excavations 1935–36 (Delhi, 1943, reprint 1976), p. 174.Google Scholar

3 Mackay, E. J. H., Further Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro (Delhi, 1938, reprint 1976), p. 451;Google ScholarRao, S. R., Lothal: A Harappan Port Town 1955–62 (Delhi, 1985), p. 524.Google Scholar

4 Anthropological Survey of India Memoir No. 44 (Calcutta, 1978).Google Scholar

5 Information on this rich history of the diverse ways in which copper has been handled is available in the various monographs that were prepared under the aegis of the government of the British in India. The following works are especially important: Dampier, G. R., A Monograph on the Brass and Copper Wares of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh (Allahabad, 1894)Google Scholar; Gait, E. A., Note on the Manufacture of Brass and Copper Wares in Assam (Assam, 1894)Google Scholar; Monograph on the Brass and Copper Ware of the Central Provinces (Bombay, 1894);Google ScholarMukharji, T. N., A Monograph on the Brass, Bronze and Copper Manufactures of Bengal (Calcutta, 1894);Google ScholarJohnstone, D. C., Monograph on Brass and Copper Ware in the Punjab (Lahore, 1888),Google Scholar Relevant information is also available in: Kipling, J. L., “The art industries of the Punjab”, The Journal of Indian Art and Industry (1886), pp. 1–8;Google ScholarHolder, E., “Brass and copper ware of the Madras Presidency”, The Journal of Indian Art and Industry (1894–1895), pp. 81–4;Google ScholarMukharji, T. N., Art Manufactures of India (Calcutta, 1888);Google ScholarPowell, B. H. Baden, Handbook of the Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab (Lahore, 1872)Google Scholar.

6 This practice is strongly supported by the ritual prestige accorded to copper which is considered to be the purest of the inferior metals. In the Hindu classification of metals a god presides over each metal – the Sun over copper, the moon over silver, Mangal over brass, Budh over lead, Brihaspati over gold, Sukra over pewter, Sani over iron and Rahu over kansa (a copper and tin alloy).

7 Mukherjee, , op. cit., pp. 1–5.Google Scholar

8 Information on the Indus region is based on Johnstone, op. cit., Appendix A.

9 Kipling, , op. cit., p. 4.Google Scholar

10 Dampier, , op. tit., p. 6.Google Scholar

11 Mukharji, , op. cit. (1894), p. 280.Google Scholar

12 Gait, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

13 Monograph on the Brass and Copper Ware of the Central Provinces, p. 1; Jenkins, R., Report on the Territories of the Rajah of Nagpore (Calcutta, 1827), p. 91.Google Scholar

14 Holder, , op. cit., pp. 82–3.Google Scholar

15 Dampier, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Johnstone, , op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

19 Dampier, , op. cit., p. 8.Google Scholar

20 Mukharji, , op. cit. (1894), p. 285.Google Scholar

21 Pp. 4–7.

22 Mukharji, , op. cit. (1894), p. 280.Google Scholar

23 Johnstone, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

24 P. 83.

25 Information on the pattern of alloying practised in different regions is based on the monographs mentioned in footnote 5. The data on tin alloying in Lucknow is available in Hoey, W., A Monograph on Trade and Manufactures in Northern India (Lucknow, 1880), p. 199.Google Scholar

26 Dampier, , op. cit., p. 23.Google Scholar

27 Mukharji, , op. cit. (1894), p. 280.Google Scholar

28 Gait, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

29 Grigson, W. V., The Maria Conds of Bastar (London, 1938), p. 179.Google Scholar

30 Notes on the Kaseras and Thatheras are available in Rose, H. A., Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (Delhi, 1919, reprint 1980), iii, p. 465;Google ScholarCrooke, W., The Tribes and Castes of North Western India (Delhi, 1896, reprint 1974), iii, pp. 168ff., 407;Google ScholarBuchanan, F., An Account of the District of Shahabad in 1812–13 (Delhi, 1834, reprint 1986), pp. 403–4Google Scholar

31 Monograph on the Brass and Copper Ware of the Central Provinces, p. 1.Google Scholar

32 Enthoven, R. E., The Tribes and Castes of Bombay (Delhi, 1920, reprint 1975), pp. 150–1, 361–4.Google Scholar

33 Mukherjee, , op. cit., pp. 20ff.Google Scholar

34 Mukharji, , op. cit. (1894), p. 279.Google Scholar

35 Sinha, S..Dasgupta, B. K. and Banerjee, H. N.,“ Agriculture, crafts and weekly markets of South Manbhum”, Bulletin of the Anthropological Survey of India (1961), pp. 77–88.Google Scholar

36 Gait, , op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

37 This system of village community crafts is described in Chicherov, A. I., India Economic Development in the 16th–18th Centuries: Outline History of Crafts and Trade (Moscow, 1971), Chapter 1.Google Scholar Also, see Grover, B. R., “An integrated pattern of commercial life in the rural society of North India during the 17th–18th centuries”, Indian Historical Records Commission, Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Session (Delhi, 1966), pp. 121–53.Google Scholar

38 Sykes, W. H., “On the land tenures of the Dekkan”, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1835), pp. 225–6;Google ScholarSykes, W. H., “Land tenures of Dukhun”, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1836), p. 374.Google Scholar

39 Returns submitted by W. H. Sykes (1827), available in Bhattacharya, D. and Bhattacharya, B., Census of India 1961. Report on the Population Estimates of India (1820–1830) (New Delhi, 1963), pp. 177–202.Google Scholar

40 Williams, M., Memoir on the Zilla of Barroche, Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government No. III (Bombay, 1855), pp. 48–50.Google Scholar

41 Atthavanayavaharatantram; the relevant portion is available in translation in Sastri, K. A. Nilkanta and Venkataramanayya, N., Further Sources of Vijayanagara History (Madras, 1946), iii, pp. 310–13.Google Scholar

42 Punjab District Gazetteers. Volume XXVIII. A Rawalpindi District (Lahore, 1909), pp. 159–61.Google Scholar

43 Buchanan, F., “ An Account of the Northern Part of the District of Gorakhpur”, in Bhattacharya, op. cit., iii (1985) pp. 171–276.Google Scholar

44 “Population of Burdwan &c”, Asiatic Researches, XIII (1818), p. 566.Google Scholar

45 Cited in Sovani, N. V., Social Survey of Kolhapur City (Poona, 1951), p. 71.Google Scholar

46 Ibid.p. 213.

47 Gokhale, B. G., Poona in the Eighteenth Century: An Urban History (Delhi, 1986), pp. 24–5Google Scholar

48 Jenkins, , op. cit. (Calcutta, 1827), p. 83.Google Scholar

49 Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay (1823), pp. 172–264.Google Scholar

50 Ibid.p. 179.

51 Ibid.p. 182.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.p. 197.

54 Gupte, B. A., “The Baroda court”, The Journal of Indian Art (1886), p. 132.Google Scholar

55 Holder, , op. cit., p. 82.Google Scholar

56 “Enumeration of the various classes of population, and of trade and handicrafts in the town of Bareilly in Rohilkhand ”, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1827).Google Scholar The relevant enumeration made by Glyn is available in Bhattacharya, D., op. cit., iii, pp. 443–54.Google Scholar

57 A Elphinston, “Appendix E Fairs”, Report on the Bombay Chambers of Commerce for the Year 1852–53 (Bombay, 1853), p. 222.Google Scholar

58 Daniel, H. – Assistant Superintendent of Police to Collector, 15 04 1863, Bombay Archives Judicial Department (1864, Vol. 12).Google Scholar

59 Ashbumeer, L. R., Collector to Revenue Commissioner, 20 06 1867, Bombay Archives Judicial Department (1867, Vol. 18).Google Scholar

60 Birdwood, G., railway magistrate to Collector, Khandesh, 7 06 1865, Bombay Archives Judicial Department (1866, Vol. 10).Google Scholar

61 Butler, D., Outlines of the Topography and Statistics of the Southern Districts of Oudh, and the Cantonment of Sultanpur Oudh (1839), edited by Ahmad, S.,Topography and Statistics of Southern Districts of Awadh (Delhi, 1982), p. 91Google Scholar

62 Ibid.p. 92.

63 Buchanan, , op. cit., p. 404.Google Scholar

64 Elphinston, , op. tit.Google Scholar

65 Mukherjee, , op. cit., pp. 41ff;Google ScholarGrigson, , op. cit., p. 124.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., p. 43.

67 Sinha, Dasgupta and Banerjee, , op. cit., p. 86.Google Scholar

68 Crooke, , op. cit., p. 407.Google Scholar

69 Ibid., p. 168.

70 Sherring, M. A., Hindu Tribes and Castes (Delhi, 1879, reprint 1974), ii, p. 116.Google Scholar

71 Russell, R. V. and Lal, Hira, The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (Delhi, 1916, reprint 1975), iii, p. 370.Google Scholar

72 Mukherjee, , op. tit., p. 12.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., p.18.

74 Gait, , op. tit., p.2.Google Scholar

75 Mukherjee, , op. tit., p.6.Google Scholar

76 Johnstone, , op. cit., p.2.Google Scholar

77 Mukherjee, , op. tit., pp. 206–8.Google Scholar

78 It is an open question as to whether alloying metals were scarce. A detailed list of the relevant mineral occurrences is not possible here. Still, tin is known to occur in the Bastar area of Madhya Pradesh, Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Gaya in Bihar and in the Bhilwara district in Rajasthan. Zinc is known to occur in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Bihar and in Madhya Pradesh. Lead is the most abundant among the alloying metals occurring primarily in the Chhotanagpur plateau, Andhra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and the Himalayan belt of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. See Chakrabarti, D. K., “The problem of tin in early I n d i a - a preliminary survey”, Man & Environment, III (1979), pp. 90–1;Google ScholarNanda, R. and Chakrabarti, D. K., “Lead in early India; A study of the geological, archaeological and literary data”, Indian Historical Review, VIII (1981), pp. 1–8;Google ScholarShukla, K. D., Narasimban, M. and Sharma, R. S., “Status of investigation for non-ferrous metals in Bihar”, in Varadan, V. K. S. (ed.), Exploration and Development of Non-Ferrous Metals in India (Calcutta, 1977), pp. 216–28;Google ScholarVaradan, V. K. S., Geology and Mineral Resources of the Slates of India: Rajasthan (Calcutta, 1977), p. 68;Google ScholarBrown, J. Coggin and Dey, A. K., India's Mineral Wealth (London, 1955), PP 163–4;Google ScholarGokhale, K. V. G. K. and Rao, T. C., Ore Deposits of India (Haryana, 1978), p. 88;Google ScholarBalasundaram, M. S., “Assessment of bauxite and base metal ores in Central Region (Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra)”, in Varadan, (ed.), op. cit. (1977), p. 250.Google Scholar

79 For the details of metallurgical analysis see Agrawal, , op. cit., p. 168;Google ScholarRao, , op. cit. Chapter XIV;Google ScholarBhan, S., Excavation at Mitathal (1968) and Other Explorations in the Sutleja-Yamuna Divide (Kurukshetra, 1975), pp. 91–3;Google ScholarYule, P., Metalwork of the Bronze Age in India (Munich, 1985);Google ScholarSankalia, H. D., Deo, S. B. and Ansari, Z. D., Excavations at Ahar (Poona, 1969), p. 227.Google Scholar

80 Cf.Neogi, P., Copper in Ancient India (Patna, 1917, reprint 1979), Chapter III.Google Scholar

81 Mukherjee, , op. cit, pp. 3, 5.Google Scholar

82 Cf.Yule, , op. cit., p. 99.Google Scholar

83 Op. cit., p. 520.Google Scholar

84 Lahiri, N., The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (up to c. zoo BC): Resource Use, Resource Access and Lines of Communication (Delhi, 1992), p. 109.Google Scholar