ACADEMIA Letters

Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of

Assam
Raktim Ranjan Saikia
Kishor Goswami

Use of technology in study of social science is relatively a new approach. Now a days, sci-
entific technologies are widely used in the study of different branches of social science and
humanities. New technologies are extensively used in historical investigations also. Geo-
archaeology and archaeo-metallurgy are such branches which have helped to solve several sig-
nificant historical problems and are now regarded as indispensible part of historical method-
ology especially for the remote past.
The development of civilization has accelerated from the moment when man started using
metals. Among all the metals, iron is the most important. Historians rightly understand the
importance of iron for the development of a civilization. Contemporary historians now tend
to minutely study the amount and methodology of using iron by a civilization. It is now being
recognized that just one piece of iron can bears a long history. Extraction of iron from ore
involves a very complex technology especially the making of steel from iron by mixing of
specific amount of carbon, hammering and tampering it and make it usable. The civilization
which masters over this technology usually strives and makes its presence felt across a large
geographical territory.
The importance of iron in human civilization can be best illustrated from the following ex-
amples. On 16th November,1532 AD, Spanish General Francisco Pizarro and his 168 soldiers
faced the Inca Emperor Atahuallapa and his 80,000 soldier in a Latin American city “Kaza-
marka”. What happened next is known to all. Pijaro made Atahuallapa a prisoner within a few
minutes. Though the Incas were very good artisan of gold and silver, but they did not know
how to use iron properly. On that special day the large bare footed Inca army with wooden,
bronze and obsidian ammunition, fought against Pizarro’s cavalry equipped with steel armor,

Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Raktim Ranjan Saikia, raktimrsaikia@gmail.com

Citation: Saikia, R.R., Goswami, K. (2021). Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of Assam.
Academia Letters, Article 1332. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1332.

1
steel sward and steel fire arms. This particular incident changed the history of entire Amer-
ican continent. This incident can reflect the role of a specific metal to change the course
history. Similarly, in 1600 BC, a tribe known as Hittite from Anatolia suddenly became very
powerful. They established a large empire by dominating the nearby kingdoms. This sudden
rise of Hittites was fueled by knowledge of use of iron. Hittites were the first people who
could able to use iron successfully. The Hittites were the first people to discover the specific
property of iron and thereby able to make hard iron by mixing it with carbon. They used this
method very successfully which make their weapons lethal in compare to other settlements
and subsequently established the Hittite empire.
Similarly iron was also important for the survival of civilizations which can be best illus-
trated by the fate of the two Viking colonies of 10th century Greenland. The colonies survived
till annual supply of iron from Norway through ships was continued (iron was not available in
Greenland). But later, when luxury items and church material replaced the iron in the ships
leading to a shortage of iron in the colonies made them vulnerable to fight against the Inuit
(the Eskimos) entering from Canada and finally they were washed away.
In the historiography of iron and its implications pioneering works have already been done
in world context. Jared Diamond and many others with interdisciplinary approach stress the
metal centric approach to understand human civilization of the remote past. In fact from the
second decade of the 20th century historians like R.H.Whitebeck (Our Iron-Clad Civilization,
The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 9, No.2, PP.125-130; 1919) tried to underline the importance of
the study of iron use for a better understanding of civilizations. Similarly, Thomas T. Read
also discussed the early attempt by humans to cast iron (The Early Casting of Iron: A Stage
in Iron Age Civilization, Geographical Review, Vol.24, No.4, PP.544-554; 1934). In Indian
context also scholars like S.D.Singh (Iron in Ancient India, Journal of the Economic and
Social History of the Orient, Vol. 5, No. 2, PP.212-216; 1962), Praveen Gullapalli (Early
Metal In South India, Journal of World prehistory, Vol.22, N.4, PP. 439-459; 2009), V.K.
Thakur, R. Arjun etc., also worked on the impact of iron in ancient India.
However, writing on iron in Assam is not a popular historiographical norm. Except
Charles Stonor (The Blacksmith and His Forge in the Mountains of North East India, An-
thropos,Bd,70, H.5./6., PP.833-838; 1975) and Pawel Prokop and I. Suliga’s (Two Thousand
Years of Iron Smelting in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, North East India, Current Science,
Vol.104, No.6, PP.761-768; 2013) work which is particularly centred around Meghalaya we
have not come across much noteworthy scholarly contributions. In the case of medieval Assam
S.L.Barua has authored one article on the use of metallurgy (Metallurgy in Medieval Assam,
Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol.56, PP.447-453; 1995) during the Ahom
rule. A very brief segment of the paper deals with iron where much of her arguments are

Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Raktim Ranjan Saikia, raktimrsaikia@gmail.com

Citation: Saikia, R.R., Goswami, K. (2021). Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of Assam.
Academia Letters, Article 1332. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1332.

2
contentious. On the other hand in the archaeological work of Hemendra Nath Dutta (History,
Art and Archaeology of Doiyang Dhansiri Valley, Assam, LBS Publications, 2012, Guwa-
hati) tradition of iron smelting in Assam is discussed. Since the work is basically pertained
to archaeology is lack historical methodology. At the same time the politics over iron and its
capacity to hasten the state formation process and emergence of industrial guilds in ancient
and medieval Assam are certain important aspects which still await historical investigation. In
this essay modest attempt has been made to understand the use of iron in ancient and medieval
Assam and in doing so certain earlier hypothesises are revisited.
In pre industrial era, like other parts of India in Assam also nature was responsible to
make good strong iron. The technical knowledge of making very hard iron by mixing some
“trace elements” was not available. But people knew it well that iron of some specific area was
very good. Actually several trace elements are naturally mixed with these so called good iron.
People knew it from their experience that iron of some specific area is good, without knowing
the root cause. Since Assam is not naturally blessed with good quality iron he Ahoms couldn’t
construct high quality stone architecture during their six hundred years long rule.
High quality specific iron is required to prepare iron tools for cutting stone sculptures and
architecture. In such iron some trace elements like vanadium, titanium and chromium mix
naturally. Such iron is not available in all localities Assam. Places where good quality irons
available in Brahmaputra valley were located in South Nongstoin (West Khasi Hills), Kaliyani
of Karbi Anglong, North Nongstoin, Hahim (Kamrup District), Dhupdhora, Lengupara (Goal-
para) and Chandordinga (Dhubri). However, these sources of iron were not controlled by the
Ahoms. The only source of iron directly controlled by the Ahoms was the iron nodule of
Dihing river bed and limonite iron ore of Tiru Hills of present day Nagaland. However, the
Dihing nodule and Tiru limonite are of very low grade. Perhaps it explains why most of the
Ahom sculptures were made up of soft rock.
The oldest rock structure so far discovered in Assam is the “Manobhaba Guha” (the cave
fountain) of Kamakhya Temple which was made up of very hard gneissic granite. The water
fountain shows natural stone blocks at the bottom, but the sides are protected with huge finely
sized granite blocks which are fitted in jigsaw puzzle style without any cement or dowel joint.
Dr Pranav Jyoti Deka argues that this structure is 2200 years old. There are legends telling
that it was made by the “Asuras”. The word “Asura” indicates to a non Indo-Aryan language
speaking ethnic group who resided in Brahmaputa Valley before coming of Indo-Aryan lan-
guage speaking group led by Narakasura with a highly skilled iron making technology. Since
high quality iron is required to cut gneissic granite it can be assumed that the Indo-Aryan
group of people who constructed the Manobhaba Guha did possessed the complex iron tech-
nological knowledge. Moreover the “Megaliths” scattered throughout the North East India

Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Raktim Ranjan Saikia, raktimrsaikia@gmail.com

Citation: Saikia, R.R., Goswami, K. (2021). Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of Assam.
Academia Letters, Article 1332. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1332.

3
indicate to existence of a very old tradition of iron culture which still awaits proper historicl
investigation. Fortunately one research article (Two thousand years of iron smelting in the
Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, North East India) published in a research journal “Current Science”
(VOL. 104, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2013) give us some idea on the topic. Pawel Prokop and
Ireneusz Suliga have proved that the iron culture of the Khasis is 2000 years old. But the
Khasi people never arrived to Khasi Hills in one day. The Khasi Hills were the last strong
hold of the Khasis. According to Hemlem Bareh, the Khasis entered Assam 2500 years back
from Laos and Vietnam through Patkai Range (Bareh, Hemlet, 1967, The History and Cul-
ture of Khasis p.5). Khasis lived in plains of Brahmaputra Valley, Karbi Anglong and North
Kachar Hills for long time. After that about 2000 years back Mongolian “Kachari” people
entered Assam from Tibet (Chatterjee S.K, 1970, The Place of Assam in the History of Civ-
ilization of India. p. 9). The Khasis couldn’t resist the pressure of the Kacharis and made
them to move to present day Khasi hills.
The time frame of the migration of the Khasi people determined by Hemlet Bareh or
Suniti Kumar Chatterjee was based on indirect evidence like linguistic study, culture etc. But
the time frame determined by Professor Prokop is based on successful use of instrumental
science. If we consider Professor Prokop’s time as basis, then we must push forward the
time, determined by Hemlet Bareh or Suniti Kumar Chatterjee. Because, if the Khasis well
established themselves in Khasi Hills to develop iron industry 2000 years back, then the time
of expulsion of Khasis by Kacharis must be more than 2000 years back. Thus the Kacharis
also, must have entered Assam long before 2000 years time frame. The Khasis must bear
the knowledge of iron making from Laos-Vietnam. Because the Khasis construct megaliths
where ever they went. So the only way to determine the time of Khasi migration to Assam is
to determine the time of the ancient iron artefacts and tools of eastern Assam.
Though the history of iron industry is very old in Assam, but it was never easily available.
After Great War of Saraighat, the Ahom court reduced the attention to iron production. So,
French merchant Jean-Baptist Chevalier who visited Assam during the reign of King Rajeswar
Simha, mentioned the Assamese iron weapons as of very low in quality. The rarity of iron
weapons in Assam after Saraighat war can be realized from the war chronicles of “Moamoria
Revolution”. The chief weapon of the revolutionary peasants was bamboo stick. The chief
weapon of the “Sekoni kobowas”, the most powerful peasant army of the Moamorias, led by
Gobinda Gaoburha, was bamboo stick.
A piece of iron can bear the real history. Carbon is mixed with iron during preparation
of steel. These carbon particles are preserved within steel for thousand years. Such carbon
particles are the key of the time capsule. These carbons are extracted from steel through a
very though and tedious method and use for radio carbon dating. The source of a specific iron

Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Raktim Ranjan Saikia, raktimrsaikia@gmail.com

Citation: Saikia, R.R., Goswami, K. (2021). Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of Assam.
Academia Letters, Article 1332. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1332.

4
can be determined from trace element study and lead isotope study. Trace elements and lead
isotopes can act like finger print. The source of an iron piece can give idea on the areal extent
of a state. Use of sophisticated technology in study of history has already completed decade.
It is the need of the time to use such technology to study of Assam history or our history study
will always remain in an infant state.

References
1. Diamond, Jared (2005): Collapse, How Societies Choose to fall or Survive, Viking Pen-
guin, USA.

2. Diamond, Jared (1999): Guns, Germs, and Steel, The Fates of Human Societies, W.W.
Norton and Company Inc, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York 10110.

3. Chatterjee, S.K, (1970): The Place of Assam in the History of Civilization of India.
University of Gauhati.

4. Bareh, Hemlet (1967): The History and Culture of Khasis, Calcutta.

5. Pawel Prokop and Ireneusz Suliga(25 March 2013): Two thousand years of iron smelting
in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, North East India, Current Science, CURRENT SCIENCE,
VOL. 104, NO. 6.

6. Borha, Dr Dhrubajyoti (1998): Moamoria Gana-atbhuthan 2nd part, Bonolata, Panbazar

7. Dutta-Baruah, Caroline (2008): Adventures of Jean-Baptist Chevalier in Eastern India

(1752-1765), LBS Publications, Guwahati.

Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Raktim Ranjan Saikia, raktimrsaikia@gmail.com

Citation: Saikia, R.R., Goswami, K. (2021). Technology in historical study: Iron culture and History of Assam.
Academia Letters, Article 1332. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1332.