Chapter 2 - Minerals and Metals in the Rigveda

II-3
Panis or Harappan traders. The Rgvedic war was basically a civil
war fought around 2500-2000 B.C. and won by the authors of the
Rgveda. Their opponents belonged to the same racial stock but
different religious seet. As the Sarasvati river got dried up, the
Rgvedic people moved towards the eastern valley of Ganga and Yamuna
and continued with the later part of the Vedic civilization, lasting
upto 800 B.C. and heralding the onset of the second urbanisation
and the Historical Period in India.
Transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic Age
The Rgveda is not a manual on metallurgy, and hence we cannot
expect too many details on minerals and metals in this earliest
literature of the mankind. Yet we do obtain here a glimpse into
the transition from the neolithic to the chalcolithic age in
India.
The Rgveda (Rv) contains several words for the stone:
asman, adri, pasya etc., of which the first i.e. asman is the most
significant one. Mehta and Kantawala (1987) have discussed the
varieties of stone-tools in the Rgveda. In Rv. 1.191.15 the text
bhinadmy asmana indicates a cutting stone-tool which could be a
blade, celt or cleaver. The asmanam vajram (Rv. 4.22.1) is evidently
a vajra or weapon made of stone. Later a similar weapon was made of
ayasa or metal. The simultaneous appearance of the words Kamara
and asman in 9.112.2 led Mehta et al (1987) to propose that
Kāmāra was a stone-worker rather than a blacksmith. It may be