-Treasure Trove * Prashant Pol-
As we walk towards Mehrauli in south Delhi, we can see Qutub Minar from far away. This 238-feet tall Minar is as if a 23 storeyed building. This is the highest construction of bricks in entire world. Tourists from all over the world throng to see the Minar.
This 900 years old building is declared as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. The place where this Minar stands today housed Dhillika, the capital of Prithviraj Chauhan during his reign. Qutub-ud-din Aibak, the Commander of Mohammad Ghori destroyed Lal Kot, the foretress-cum-castle in Dhillika and built this minar. Later, Iltutamish and Mohammad Tughlaq completed the construction, inform the inscriptions found at the site.
However, in the vicinity of Dhillika stands a much an astonishing thing, much more than Qutub Minar, for centuries altogether. It enjoys manifold importance than that of Qutub Minar. There stands an iron pillar adjacent to Qutub Minar, just about a distance of 100-150 feet . It is much smaller than Qutub Minar. It is only 7.35 metres or 24.11 feet high which comes to one-tenth of Qutub Minar. However, this pillar is much older than Qutub Minar. This pillar, crafted in 400 AD, is a treasure of mysteries.
This pillar consists of 98 per cent iron. With such a high content of iron, it is bound to rust, but even after standing in rain and summer heat for last 1600-1700 years, it has no trace of rusting. This is a big wonder for the science. In this 21st century, in an era of advanced technology and extensive research and discoveries in metallurgy, a pillar with 98 per cent iron cannot remain away from rusting. The pillar can stand without rusting for some time if it is provided any kind of coating. Then what is the specialty that makes this pillar stand today as it was when it was erected?
Prof R Balasubramaniam of IIT Kanpur has done intensive research on this subject. Many of his papers can be found even on internet.
In the opinion of Prof R Balasubramaniam, the compound of iron and phosphorous was used heavily in 400 AD during the reign of Ashoka. And this iron pillar has been made through this method only.
Prof R Balasubramaniam and his students proved this after carrying out different experiments on this pillar. In his view, making iron corrosion-free is a big challenge before today”s technology. Such corrosion-free iron is required in construction business and industries based on mechanics and techniques like epoxy coating, cadodic protection are used for this. However, all these methods only prolong the rusting, they do not prevent it completely. If the iron is to be made totally corrosion-free, it must have the inherent capacity to produce corrosion-free layer. Today, in this 21st century, no such iron could be made that would produce such corrosion-free layer itself.
However, such an iron was made in India in 4th century and iron pillar at Delhi is a living proof for this. This iron pillar was, in fact, not made for Delhi. King Chandragupta Maurya had made this pillar around 400 AD to be fitted outside Vishnu Temple at Mathura. The statue of Garuda might have graced this pillar, that is why it was called Garuda Stambh.
The basis for this premise is a Sanskrit verse carved out in Brahmi script on this pillar. This verse, filled with praise for the king named Chandra narrates the importance of pillar in front of the Vishnu Temple. Going by the name Chandra and its time of making in 4th century, it was assumed that Chandragupta Maurya had erected this pillar. This assumption gains ground as the style of this carved verse appears to be that of Gupta-era. This verse explains that the pillar was built to erect in front of Vishnu Temple on the Mount Vishnupada near Mathura.
(However many historians differ on this. In their view, the pillar was made in 912 AD).
This 7-metre pillar is 50 centimetres (or about 1.75 ft.) below ground. The diameter at the bottom is 41 centimetres while it is 30 centimetres at the top. In the past, meaning till 1997, the tourist would hug the pillar and try to embrace it. It was believed that all the wishes would come to reality if one could embrace the pillar fully. However, attempts of hitting the pillar, carving on it etc. were gradually started and hence, the Archeological Survey of India built a protective fencing around it in 1997. Therefore, now one cannot actually touch the pillar.
Do we really see this pillar alone coming out of history and standing as witness? Not at all. Such corrosion-free iron pillars are found elsewhere also.
So many evidences have been found pointing to the fact that this art existed in India during 600-700 years BC (or even earlier than that). Remains of excellent quality iron have been found at Raja Nal-ka-tila in Sonbhadra district, Malhar in Chhattisgarh and Pandurajar Dhibi and Mangalkot districts in West Bengal. All these evidence proclaim without doubt that the metallurgy of iron was developed in India. Even entries of foreign travellers of those era have been found saying that high quality iron was made in India.
There are many groups in India that are making iron since that time. One of those communities, Agariya Lohar, uses no modern machinery even today and collects soil from the iron mines. It collects iron stones and processes them and obtains pure iron through all this process. This is the traditional method of Agariya Lohar community to make iron.
The word Agariya is born from aag (fire). The work of iron furnace is the work of fire. That is how the word Agariya came. This community is found in Mandla, Shahdol, Anuppur and Bilaspur and Sarguja districts in Madhya Pradesh. This community is considered a part of Gond community. The community has two sub-castes– Pathariya and Khuntiya. Even today, the means of livelihood of these communities is to ‘prepare’ iron and make tools and weapons from them. Sangit Verma, a director from Bhopal, has made a documentary on these Agariya people. The documentary depicts everything from selecting iron ores from the soil in the forest to making iron weapons.
Thus, this 2000-2500 year old tradition has percolated down to survive today, albeit limited to this community. Then what would be the nature of this art of metallurgy when it enjoyed patronage by people and power alike?
The mind becomes stupefied even with the imagination…!
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