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 6 - Minerals and Metals in the Indian Epics
3 (of 17)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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by Lord Krishna.
Underwater expedition has shown fortification
wall of limestone blocks and stones measuring around 2x1x0.5 m
sizes. Some moonstone pieces recovered from the debris suggest
that a religions structure existed there. The retrieved chert
blades and sherds of lustrous red ware and black-and-red ware are
clearly of the Late Harappan origin; the triangular and prismatic
shaped stone anchors having three holes each are analogous to the
anchors used in the 14th Century B.C. Syria and Cyprus. A small
seal of conch-shell has an animal motif, reminiscent of the Bahrainia
art. A jar bears an inscription in the Late Harappan characters
(partly resembling Semitic and partly Brahmi) which has been.
deciphered by Rao (1988:52) as 'mahahagacha Shah Pa' conveying.
the sense 'Sea Lord Protect'. Rao had earlier (1982) deciphered
the Indus Valley Script and showed how this script was eventually
transformed into the Late Harappan and the Brahmi.
To cap it all, A.K. Singhvi of PRL, Ahmedabad announed.
that the pottery sample no.9 from the rubble wall in cliff section
of BDK I (Period I) in the underwater Bet Dwarka had been
thermoluminiscence-dated as 3520 B.F.or 1533 B.C. (Rao, 1988:
xxdv and 52). Some scholars have adduced reasons to propose that
the Mahabharata war took place around 1465 to 1430 B.C.
The Text of Mahabharata in the Light of the Archaeological Evidences
The date of the Mahabharata war has been variously
suggested as 3100 B.C., 1900 B.C., 1400 B.C. and 900 B.C. While
we tend to favour the last two dates 1400-900 B.C., we also agree
with Joshi (1987:20) that the kind of war that was described in
