Iron in Ancient India.
By P. Neogi.
CHAPTER I.
IRON IN THE VEDIC AGE[1] (CIRCA 2000-1000 B.C.).
The revival of iron industry in modern India under the aus- pices of the Bengal Iron and Steel and the Tata Iron and Steel Companies leads naturally to the question whether the present industry, which promises so much in the near future, is entirely a new venture in India or is a revival of past ventures in this direc- tion. India is known to the West primarily as the abode of an ancient civilization rich in ethical and philosophical doctrines, but the fact that Indian civilization was rich in material progress also is slowly but steadily being brought to the notice of the world at large. So far as the present subject is concerned, a careful study of the available literature and archaeological evidence will easily convince any student that India had always been in the past, as it promises to be in the near future, a rich iron-producing country. Well has Sir John Hickshaw said in his presidential address to the British Association Meeting at Bristol in 1875 that "the supply of iron in India, as early as the fourth and fifth centuries, seems to have been unlimited. India well repaid any advantages which she may have derived from the early civilized communities of the West if she were the first to supply them with iron and steel." Shaw
- ↑ Prof. Hermann Jacobi from astronomical calculations in inclined to push We have, however, the beginning of the Vedic age so far back as 4000 m.C. adopted here the more moderate estimate of the antiquity of the Vedic age. Max Müller in of opinion that the Vedas represent the most ancient writings in he world.
