Essay name: Minerals and Metals in Sanskrit literature
Author:
Sulekha Biswas
Affiliation: Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj University / Department of Sanskrit
This essay studies the presence of Minerals and Metals in Sanskrit literature over three millennia, from the Rigveda to Rasaratna-Samuccaya. It establishes that ancient Indians were knowledgeable about various minerals and metallurgy prior to the Harappan era, with literary references starting in the Rgveda.
Chapter 3 - Minerals and Metals in the Vedic literature after Rigveda
1 (of 24)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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CHAPTER III
MINERALS AND METALS IN THE VEDIC LITERATURE
AFTER RGVEDA
Before pursuing our observations on the Vedic literature.
we wish to re-emphasize why a separate discussion on the Rgveda
was undertaken in the previous chapter. The reason was that we
had to be firm about the author-ship and date of the Rgveda. The
idea that the so-called Aryans came from outside, entered India
around 1500 B.C. and composed the Rgveda around 1200 B.C. has to
be abandoned once for all. This is the considered view of most
of the modern scholars whom we have quoted in the previous
chapter (Dyson, 1982; Shaffer, 1984).
Jim Shaffer has been most categorical:
'Current archaeological data do not support the existence.
of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South asia at any time
in pre or proto-historic periods'.
Thus we were fully entitled to submit that the Rgvedic
civilization thrived at Kalibangan, Banawali, Bhagwanpura etc.
on the Sarasvati valley indigenously, during the third millenniun
B.C.
During the beginning of the second millenniun B. E.,
there were neo-tectoni movements in the northern part of
India (Rajaguru, 1977:69-72) causing diversion of the earlier.
channels of Sutlej and Yamuna away from the Sarasvati (Raikes,
