The beginning of iron in India

Abstract

Between 1795 and 1974 early Indian iron may be said to have had three separate phases of research. The first phase lasted from 1795 to about the middle of the 19th century. There were two types of writings in this period. The first type represented the metallurgical experiments on pre-industrial Indian steel called wootz, the term which is derived from the Canarese term ukku meaning steel, having been introduced into the English language by Pearson in 1795 (Yule and Burnell, 1903).