Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/9



The only notice of gold plate in the Rig-Veda is an allusion to golden cups; but the references to jewelry are so numerous, that it is evident the precious metals must have been known and used in India for drinking vessels, and other domestic utensils from the first settlement of the Ary as in the Pan jab. Gold is indeed a favorite simile in the Rig-Veda for the rising sun ; and the wheels and yokes of carriages are described as made of gold. The Ramayana and Mahabharata offer abundant evidence that at the period when they were compiled in their present fomi the Hindus were perfectly familiar with works executed in gold on the grandest scale. Unfortunately no objects in the precious metals that can be claimed as authentic examples of ancient Indian art have survived the wreck of time in India ; unless any may still be hidden within the shrines of some of the more sequestered of the great idol temples.

The oldest examples of really ancient gold and silver work found on Indian soil are the gold casket [Plate 1] and silver patera [Plate 2] belonging to the India Office library, which have been lent to the Science and Art Department for exhibition in the India Museum at South Kensington. This gold casket is an object of the highest interest in connexion with the history of Indian art. It was found by Mr. Masson about forty years ago in one of the Buddhist topes, built on the sandstone