[2] The Indian cultural and commercial contacts with the Near East and the Greco-Roman world enabled an exchange of metallurgic sciences.

Recent excavations in Middle Ganga Valley done by archaeologist Rakesh Tewari show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE.

It extended from the upper Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh to the eastern Vindhya range and West Bengal.

Perhaps as early as 500 BCE, although certainly by 200 CE, high quality steel was being produced in southern India by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.

Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization I: Our Oriental Heritage: "Something has been said about the chemical excellence of cast iron in ancient India, and about the high industrial development of the Gupta times, when India was looked to, even by Imperial Rome, as the most skilled of the nations in such chemical industries as dyeing, tanning, soap-making, glass and cement... By the sixth century the Hindus were far ahead of Europe in industrial chemistry; they were masters of calcinations, distillation, sublimation, steaming, fixation, the production of light without heat, the mixing of anesthetic and soporific powders, and the preparation of metallic salts, compounds and alloys.

Vedic people had used Copper extensively in agriculture, Water purification, tools, utensils etc., D. K. Chakrabarti (1992) argued: "It should be clear that any controversy regarding the meaning of ayas in the Rgveda or the problem of the Rgvedic familiarity or unfamiliarity with iron is pointless.

[15] The Silpasastras (the Manasara, the Manasollasa (Abhilashitartha Chintamani) and the Uttarabhaga of Silparatna) describe the lost wax technique in detail.

Lothali copper is unusually pure, lacking the arsenic typically used by coppersmiths across the rest of the Indus valley.

[17] It is the first element to be discovered in metallurgy, Copper and its alloys were also used to create copper-bronze images such as Buddhas or Hindu/Mahayana Buddhist deities.

Recent excavations in Middle Ganges Valley show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE.

[37] In the 5th century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus observed that "Indian and the Persian army used arrows tipped with iron.

[38] Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote the Hindus excelled in the manufacture of iron, and that it would be impossible to find anything to surpass the edge from Hindwani steel.

[40] Ferrum indicum appeared in the list of articles subject to duty under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.

Wootz was widely exported throughout the Middle East, where it was combined with a local production technique around 1000 CE to produce Damascus steel, famed throughout the world.

Studies of wootz were made in an attempt to understand its secrets, including a major effort by the famous scientist, Michael Faraday, son of a blacksmith.

Working with a local cutlery manufacturer he wrongly concluded that it was the addition of aluminium oxide and silica from the glass that gave wootz its unique properties.

[35] Recent excavations in Middle Ganges Valley conducted by archaeologist Rakesh Tewari show iron working in India may have begun as early as 1800 BCE.

[37] Archaeological sites in India, such as Malhar, Dadupur, Raja Nala Ka Tila and Lahuradewa in the state of Uttar Pradesh show iron implements in the period between 1800 BCE-1200 BCE.

[50] Spikes, knives, daggers, arrow-heads, bowls, spoons, saucepans, axes, chisels, tongs, door fittings etc.

[50] In Southern India (present day Mysore) iron appeared as early as the 12th or 11th century BCE.

[51] The earliest available Bronze age swords of copper discovered from the Harappan sites in Pakistan date back to 2300 BCE.

[52] Swords have been recovered in archaeological findings throughout the Ganges-Jamuna Doab region of India, consisting of bronze but more commonly copper.

[50] Perhaps as early as 300 BCE—although certainly by 200 CE—high quality steel was being produced in southern India by what Europeans would later call the crucible technique.

Archaeological evidence suggests that this manufacturing process was already in existence in South India well before the common era.

[58] The Periplus Maris Erythraei mentions weapons of Indian iron and steel being exported from India to Greece.

[61][62] The swords manufactured in Indian workshops find written mention in the works of Muhammad al-Idrisi (flourished 1154).

[58]Indian metallurgy under the Mughal emperor Akbar (reign: 1556–1605) produced excellent small firearms.

Akbar's aim was to establish a uniform coinage throughout his empire; some coins of the old regime and regional kingdoms also continued.Statues of Nataraja and Vishnu were cast during the reign of the imperial Chola dynasty (200–1279) in the 9th century.

[68] These Indian metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting, and disguised plugs, in order to produce these globes.

[69] The Mysoreans successfully used these iron-cased rockets against the Presidency armies of the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars.