Pre-Industrial Iron Smelting in Jharkhand, Ea...

Pre-Industrial Iron Smelting in Jharkhand, Eastern India: An Anthropo-archaeological Study

Author Name : Rupsa Karmakar, Debasis Kumar Mondal

ABSTRACT The invention of iron added a new dimension to the evolution of civilization. Iron replaced the raw materials of earlier tools made from stone, bone, or antlers. Tools made of iron became more effective and easier to use. So, it paved the way for expanding agricultural activities and gradual urbanization. Chotanagpur Plateau in eastern India preserves huge amounts of iron ores that the Early inhabitants of this region first identified. They gradually learned the technology of reducing iron ores in pre-industrial ways. This pre-industrial iron technology played a crucial role in industrial iron production and urbanization. The evidence of iron smelting from Eastern India was found during the Neo-Chalcolithic period. In Eastern India, iron smelting technology with proper furnace management and advanced iron reduction procedures evolved around 700 BCE. Several communities were engaged in iron smelting here: Asur, Agaria,Lohar, Birjia, Kol, and Ho. Iron smelting was a hereditary occupation signifying the ethnic identity of these ancient smelters. The present paper attempts to illustrate the techno-cultural perspectives associated with the pre-industrial iron smelting in Eastern India focusing on the state of Jharkhand. As an anthropo-archaeological study, an attempt has been made to reconstruct the pre-industrial iron smelting technology through the archaeological evidence, and the lives and memories of the descendants of the ancient iron smelters, the Agaria. The industrialization of iron changed a lot in the economy and society of earlier iron smelters and gradually the tradition became marginal because of the availability of industrial iron.