In the book mentioned above, the author writes about ores in different places, telling about the colour and quality of the different ores, and whether the ore was found mixed with earth, clay or maybe in stones, which had to be granulated before the melting. In some of the ores the iron quality was so poor, that things made of the iron would break quickly.
The huts where they melted the ores were with a roof, but without walls, but within time, the walls build themselves, as all the slag was thrown just outside the hut. This information’s he got from the Agaria’s – and they should know, having lived from iron producing for many generations.
There were different ways the Agria’s used, when they needed to find new iron ores. One was by dreaming where they would find it, and another one was, to go out in the wood and shoot a red arrow in the air, where it landed they started to dig. Not very scientific I would say, but on the other hand, if it worked, the whole area must have been one big iron ore, covered with more or less earth.
It should also be mentioned that the iron the Agaria’s made, was mostly, if not all, used locally, and that the Agaria’s mostly were operating in a belt between Orissa and Rajastan.
The iron export was mainly from the western and southern part of India, as well as from the northern part, probably along the Silk Road.
We mostly tend to focus on Indian steel export going west, but the caravans travelling the Silk Road have, most likely, taken ingots and maybe blades east too, just as the boats from the east and south India sailed westward with their cargos of Indian steel, they most probably also sailed eastwards with the same kind of cargoes, even more so, as the Indians had colonies in their eastern neighbour countries, in the early times – as far away as Japan, it is said.
When we come to discus the Indian export of blades and ingots to Persia and Syria it has been mentioned earlier, that a minor part of the ingots were of inferior quality. This meant that the Persian merchants wanted their own people in India, to test the ingots before they were shipped – but it also meant, that Indian merchants traded in the Persian and Syrian bazaars, guaranteeing the quality of the ingots/blades sold. Also, we must not forget, that the Persian/Syrian markets were not the only markets on which the Indians sold ingots/blades – I don’t know, but should I guess, I would think that the African market at times could have been as big, if not bigger.
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