A Diachronic Study of Vanishing Technology of Pre-industrial Iron Smelting in Purulia, West Bengal

Abstract The Indigenous production of iron in India has been one of the most interesting parts of the ancient ferrous metallurgy. The Asur was one of India's major ancient Iron smelters that produced Indigenous iron with anti-rust properties. The Chotanagpur Plateau, the Mineral heartland of India, reserves a huge amount of iron ores that have been home to the Asur for as long as time can remember. They learned about the technology of reducing iron ores in pre-industrial ways. Eastern India’s earliest evidence of iron smelting comes from the Neo-Chalcolithic period and the improved smelting technology, furnace management, and advancements in iron production evolved around 700 BCE. Iron smelting was the hereditary occupation of the ethnic group signifying their ethnic identity. In Purulia, a community of Lohra Asur living in the 2200 ft height of the Ajodhya Hills for generations, produced indigenous iron from the iron ores found in the Hill. The paper explores the techno-cultural perspectives associated with pre-industrial iron smelting in Purulia, West Bengal. The practice of the pre-industrial method of iron smelting had been completely lost in Eastern India. This paper also attempted to reconstruct the ancient method of pre-industrial iron smelting technology through the archaeological evidence and the ethnographic narratives from the lives and memories of the descendants of the Asur and preserve the lost technology as a part of the cultural heritage of Eastern India specifically and India in general.