Metallurgical

Heritage of India
Overview of the presentation

Metallurgical Heritage of India
1. Wootz steel
2. Chola bronzes
3. Emperor of the plains
4. The rustless wonder
5. Black and silver magic
Wootz steel/Damascus sword

Wootz steel
Wootz is the anglicized version of ukku in the
languages of the states of Karnataka, and
Andhra Pradesh, a term denoting steel.
Literary accounts suggest that the steel from
the southern part of the Indian subcontinent
was exported to Europe, China, the Arab
world and the Middle East.
Wootz steel
Though an ancient material, wootz steel also
fulfills the description of an advanced
material, since it is an ultra-high carbon steel
exhibiting properties such as superplasticity
and high impact hardness and held sway over
a millennium in three continents- a feat
unlikely to be surpassed by advanced
materials of the current era.


Wootz steel
Wootz deserves a place in the annals of
western science due to the stimulus provided
by the study of this material in the 18th and
19th centuries to modern metallurgical
advances, not only in the metallurgy of iron
and steel, but also to the development of
physical metallurgy in general and
metallography in particular.
Indian wootz ingots are believed to have
been used to forge Oriental Damascus
swords which were reputed to cut even
gauze kerchiefs and were found to be of
a very high carbon content of 1.5-2.0%.

Wootz steel
In India till the 19th century swords and daggers
of wootz steel were made at centres including
Lahore, Amritsar, Agra, Jaipur, Gwalior, Tanjore,
Mysore, Golconda etc. although none of these
centres survive today.
The art of making Wootz steel was lost in India
due to advent of fire arms, and due to depletion
of iron ore deposits which had trace elements of
vanadium which was primarily responsible for
the fine carbides present in the wootz steel.

Wootz steel







Wootz steel



Wootz steel
Western interest in Wootz steel is very high
since the medieval times.
In the last 20 years Sherby and Verhoeven
have worked on Wootz steel, and the latter
has recreated the steel with modern
equipment.
Chola bronzes

Chola bronzes
Chola bronze icons from Tamil Nadu (c. 9th-
13th century) in southern India, such as the
Nataraja often described as cosmic dance of
the Hindu god Siva, rank amongst the finest of
religious expressions with often revelationary
implications for our present day
understanding of art, music, dance, poetry,
science, history, society, psychology and
philosophy.

Lost Wax technique

Chola period bronzes were created using the
lost wax process
Wax made from beehives and kungilum (a
type of camphor) are mixed with a little oil
and kneaded well. The figure is sculpted from
this mixture fashioning all the minute details.
This is the wax model original.
The entire figure is then coated with clay
made from special clay available on the banks
of river Kaveri until the mould is of a
necessary thickness. Then the whole assembly
is dried and fired in an oven with cow-dung
cakes. The wax model melts and flows out,
leaving behind the mould of the shape of the
wax sculpted.


Chola bronzes
The metal alloy of bronze is melted and poured
into the empty clay-mould. This particular bronze
alloy is known as Pancha Loham. When the metal
has filled all crevices and has settled and
hardened and cooled, the mould is broken off.
The bronze figure thus obtained is then cleaned,
finer details are added, blemishes are removed,
smoothened, and polished well. Hence each
bronze icon is unique and the mould cannot be
used to create copies.

Chola bronzes

Chola bronzes

Chola bronzes



Identify


Malik-e-maidan

'Malik-E-Maidan' (lord of the battlefield) is the
largest medieval cannon in the world, fourteen
feet long and weighing about 55 tons. It was cast
at Ahmednagar from bell metal (70% Cu and 30%
Tin) and shifted to Bijapur in 1632, after wreaking
havoc in 1565 at the Battle of Talikota.
Muhammad-bin-Hasan Rumi, a Turkish officer in
the service of the king of Ahmednagar, cast this
gun in 1549, as can be seen from an inscription
on the gun.

Malik-e-maidan

Malik-e-maidan
In 1686 Aurangzeb has also recorded an
inscription on the gun saying that he subdued
the Malik-e-Maidan. When the fort of
Parnadah where this gun was installed, fell in
to hands of Bijapur, General Murari Pandit
brought the gun to Bijapur as a trophy of war
and set it up on the present bastion.
It was set up here with the help of 10 elephants,
400 oxen and hundreds of soldiers. It weighs 55
tons, is 4.5 metres long and 1.5 metres in
diameter.
To avoid going deaf, the gunner had to submerge
his head in water before firing. Legend has it that
if you touch the gun and make a wish, it will
come true!



Malik-e-maidan

Which cannon ??

Jaivana cannon: World's biggest ever
wheeled cannon
The Jaivana cannon is the world's biggest wheeled cannon
ever made. It is located at the Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur.
It was cast in 1720, during the reign of Maharaja Sawai Jai
Singh II of Jaipur.
Jaivan rests on a high 4 wheeled carriage. The front wheels
are 2.74 m in diameter and the rear wheels are 1.37 m in
diameter. The barrel is 6.147 m long and weighs 50 tons. It
rests on a 7.3 m long shaft. The tip of the barrel is 711 mm in
dia., while the rear of the barrel is 906 mm dia. An 776 mm
long elevating screw was used for raising and lowering the
barrel.
Reportedly, it took four elephants to swivel it around on its
axis!

Jaivana cannon
Never used in battle, the Maharaja Jai Singh reportedly test-
fired it once in 1720.
The cannon ball is said to have landed at Chaksu about 40 km
to the south. The impact formed a pond at the spot.
Cannons always had a water tank beside them, for the gunner
to jump into to avoid the massive shock wave. Jaivana's
gunner is said to have died on the spot on firing the cannon,
before he could jump into water. Eight people and one
elephant were also reportedly killed by the shock wave and
many houses collapsed in Jaipur.
Wasn't it a feat to transport this cannon to the top of the hill
where it is placed?

Jaivana cannon

The Rustless wonder
The Iron Pillar from Delhi
7.3 m tall, with one meter below the ground;
the diameter is 48 centimeters at the foot,
tapering to 29 cm at the top, just below the
base of the wonderfully crafted capital; it
weighs approximately 6.5 tones, and was
manufactured by forged welding.
The Iron Pillar dates from Gupta King,
who ruled from 375 - 413 AD
Inscription on the rust resilient Iron Pillar from
Delhi




The Delhi Iron Pillar
Metallurgists at Kanpur IIT have discovered that a
thin layer of "misawite", a compound of iron,
oxygen and hydrogen, has protected the cast iron
pillar from rust.
The protective film took form within three years
after erection of the pillar and has been growing
ever so slowly since then. After 1,600 years, the
film has grown just one-twentieth of a millimeter
thick, according to R. Balasubramaniam of the IIT.

The Delhi Iron Pillar
In a report published in the journal Current Science
Balasubramanian says, the protective film was formed
catalytically by the presence of high amounts of
phosphorous in the ironas much as one per cent
against less than 0.05 per cent in today's iron.
The high phosphorous content is a result of the unique
iron-making process practiced by ancient Indians, who
reduced iron ore into steel in one step by mixing it with
charcoal.
Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use
limestone in place of charcoal yielding molten slag and
pig iron that is later converted into steel. In the modern
process most phosphorous is carried away by the slag.



The Delhi Iron Pillar
Which art work is this? Which fort?

Bidri Ware - A Magic in Black and Silver

Bidriware

Bidriware

Bidriware

Bidriware


Bidriware

Bidriware derives its name from Bidar. The 500 year old
art is Persian in origin, but bidriware is purely Indian
innovation. This art of engraving and inlaying is handed
down by generations and is exclusive to Bidar .
Bidriware is manufactured from an alloy of copper and
zinc (in the ratio 1:16) by casting. The zinc content gives
the alloy a deep black color.
First, a mould is formed from soil made malleable by
the addition of castor oil and resin. The molten metal is
then poured into it to obtain a cast piece which is later
smoothened by filing.
Bidriware
The casting is now coated with a strong solution of
copper sulphate to obtain a temporary black coating
over which designs are etched freehand with the help
of a metal stylus.
This is then secured in a vise and the craftsman uses
small chisels to engrave the design over the freehand
etching. Fine wire or flattened strips of pure silver are
then carefully hemmered into these grooves.
The article then is filed, buffed and smoothed to get rid
of the temporary black coating. This results in
rendering the silver inlay hardly distinguishable from
the gleaming metallic surface which is now all silvery
white.
Bidriware
The bidriware is now ready for the final blackening (or
oxidizing) process. Here, a special variety of soil which
is available only in the unlit portions of the Bidar fort is
used. It is mixed with ammonium chloride and water to
produce a paste which is then rubbed onto a heated
bidri surface. The paste selectively darkens the body
while it has no effect on the silver inlay.
The paste is then rinsed off to reveal a shiny silver
design resplendent against the black surface. As a
finishing touch, oil is applied to the finished product to
deepen the matt coating. The finished product appears
black with brilliant silver inlay.






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