Posted on: 3 March 2010

WOOTZ STEEL as the Acme of Mankind’s Metallurgical Heritage :
“Wootz was the first high-quality steel made anywhere in the world. According to reports of travelers to the East, the Damascus swords were madeby forging small cakes of steel that were manufactured in Southern India. This steel was called wootz steel. It was more than a thousand years before steel as good was made in the West.”
-J. D. Verhoeven and A. Pendray, Muse, 1998

What is Wootz? Its Place in the History of Technology
The school or college going student today may not be aware that India’s contributions and prowess in the making of iron and steel were amongst the most remarkable in the ancient world. Of course, many of them may have had the occasion on school tours to visit the imposing Qutb Minar Complex in New Delhi and to admire the splendid Gupta era Iron Pillar (ca 400-420 AD). It stands as a monument to a glorious Indian tradition in the field of ferrous metallurgy. The Iron Pillar, the earliest and the largest surviving iron forging in the world, is regarded as a metallurgical marvel because it has defied the laws of corrosion of iron even after so many centuries, earning the nickname, the ‘rustless wonder’. However, the Iron Pillar is not the only testimony that there is to the skills of ancient Indian iron and steel metallurgy.
There is another truly remarkable story that is not so well known. This is the chronicle of the legendary wootz steel from India, which has long been a subject of much fascination around the globe, with many legends and accounts surrounding it. This book highlights the fact that India led the world in developing an impressive tradition more than two milennia ago of making high-grade steel in South India, known as wootz.


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The complete article on "Wootz Steel' : http://materials.iisc.ernet.in/~rangu/text.pdf

the roman sowrds and shileds were made of wootz steel, and its making was well kept secret. customers were only allowed in the market place and not in the manufacturing area. also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz

S J : Interesting...thanks.

Amazing facts for western world as well as for Indians---for such remarkable achievements once India(Aryavart) was better known as "VISHWA-GURU"...(World Leader).....

Rare Book Society has amazing album of old photos

Despite being a metallurgist, I wasn't aware of this.

Phil : These articles might be of further interest to you : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ashok-pillar-can-hold-a-nuke-secret/articleshow/879469.cms http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005b5c_309.pdf http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/articles/metallurg_heritage_india/metallurgical_heritage_india.html

Thank you. It is particularly interesting to read in Srinivasan and Ranganathan about the possible Indian influence on the early (C18th) commercial zinc smelting in my home town of Bristol, England. I am constantly amazed by the cross-cultural and technological links that can be found by a curious reader. I was pleased to be able to pass this nugget on to my father, who has an interest in local (Bristolian) history. Srinivasan and Ranganathan also write about the early use of arsenical copper (otherwise known as arsenic bronze) prior to the advent of tin bronzes (arsenic is often found naturally associated with copper deposits). This has left a trace in bronze-age Greek mythology, as the god of fire, volcanoes and metalworking, Hephaestos (Roman Vulcan, Babelonian Bilkan), is often portrayed as lame. Partial paralysis of the legs is a symptom of chronic arsenic poisoning, and would have afflicted early metalworkers from this period due to breathing in volatile arsenic fumes. Has anyone come across a similar relic in the Indian tradition? The development of metalworking was of very high importance in the evolution of all societies.

Thats fascinating information...Phil. Thanks.

@Shashi Joshi: Recently there was a television documentary that compared roman and indian weapons and they clearly stated that wootz steel was purely indian, the romans did not have this technology, there is also a bbc documentary stating the same. wikipedia is not always the best thing put there considering anyone can edit it.