Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixiv. (192 1), No. 5 9 



I was able subsequently to find some of these pockets and 

 some beautiful specimens were sent to the Madras Museum. 



I found no trace of any smelting furnace, but saw a con- 

 siderable amount of slag. 



The copper mining in Hyderabad State in and around 

 Chintrala is certainly very early, and, as I have already 

 mentioned, so intimately associated with dolmen remains that, 

 even in 1908, I had connected the two things together and 

 never found them apart. 



Iron. 



Unless anyone has visited Hyderabad State, or in fact 

 Southern India, they cannot get even a slight idea of the 

 abundance, the extent, or the pureness of its iron ores. No 

 section of the geological sequence exists in which iron does 

 not occur. In the Archsen, magnetite most frequently occurs 

 in almost unparalleled magnitude, whole hills and ranges 

 being formed of the purest varieties ; specular iron and red 

 haematite are also found. The schistose area contains inter- 

 bedded layers of magnetite and hasmatitic schists. The 

 Purana Group contain veins of limonite and bedded magne- 

 tite. Nearly every group of rocks in the Gondwana system, 

 save the bottom glacial beds, contain one or more of the ores 

 of iron, in greater or less quantities. The disintegration of 

 the Deccan Trap supplies rich pockets of magnetic iron sand 

 that glisten in the beds of every stream that traverse that area. 



Lastly the laterite is noted for its richness in this metal. 



Each and all of these ores have been used for smelting 

 iron by the natives. In this area iron has been known from 

 earliest times, and the unintentional manufacture of steel 

 practised. 



Iron being found in such abundance on the surface, I 

 cannot define any actual prehistoric mines, but the following 

 centres of the industry have been always famed throughout 

 India :— Nirmal, Hanumkonda, Warangal, Medak, Elgundal, 

 Anantagiri, Nizamabad, Mudgal, Dekarkonda. They are 

 indicated on my map. Of those I have mentioned, Nirmal is 

 undoubtedly the most famous. Here steel has been made for 

 unknown ages, and it has been a great trading centre for 

 " wootz," right up to the nineteenth century, when Dr. 

 Voysey found a Persian trader there from Ispahan purchasing 

 the steel. 



"The ore of this locality," writes Malcolmson (Trans. 

 Geol. Soc, Vol. V), " must be of exceptional quality, as 

 otherwise it could not have retained its reputation as the best 

 material for Damascus blades." It is near this village that 



