Hinduism: Details about 'Ayas'
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The Sanskrit term Ayas means metal and can refer to bronze, copper or iron. The Rig Veda refers to ayas, and also states that the Dasyus had Ayas (RV 2.20.8). The references to Ayas in the Rig Veda probably refer to bronze or copper rather than to iron (e.g. Frawley 1991). The Atharva Veda and the Satapatha Brahmana however refer to krsna ayas ("black metal"), which could be iron (but possibly also iron ore and iron items not made of smelted iron). While there is to date no proven evidence for smelted iron in the Indus Valley Civilization, iron ore and iron items have been unearthed in eight Indus Valley sites, some of them dating to before 2600 BCE (see Bryant 2001: 246-248, 339). There remains the possibility that some of these items were made of smelted iron, and the term "krsna ayas" might possibly also refer to these iron items, even if they are not made of smelted iron. The earlist evidence for smelted iron in India dates to 1300 to 1000 BCE (see Bryant 2001: 246-248). These early findings also occur in places like the Deccan, and according to D.K. Chakrabarti, the earliest evidence for smelted iron occurs in inner India, not in north-western India (Bryant 2001: 246). Moreover, the dates for iron in India are not later than in those of Central Asia, and according to some scholars (e.g. Koshelenko 1986) the dates for smelted iron may actually be earlier in India than in Central Asia and Iran (see Bryant 2001: 247). The Iron Age did however not necessary imply a major social transformation, and Gregory Possehl wrote that "the iron age is more of a continuation of the past then a break with it" (Bryant 2001). J.M. Kenoyer (1995) also remarks that there is a "long break in tin acquisition" necessary for the production of "tin bronzes" in the Indus Valley region, suggesting a lack of contact with Baluchistan and northern Afghanistan, or the lack of migrants from the north-west who could have procured tin. The archaeologist D.K. Chakrabarti has examinded the use of iron in Ancient India and in the Vedic texts. Literature
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