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The manufacture of iron by primitive small-scale methods has survived in southern India and Sri Lanka to the present day. The slag heaps of ancient furnaces are common, and the processes have probably been in use for more than 2,000 years; but it is unknown whether they are of indigenous invention or acquired. In southern India iron immediately succeeded stone as a material for tools and weapons, and prehistoric iron weapons began to come into use about 500 bc. The wrought-iron pillar of Delhi, set up about ad 400 by Kumara Gupta I in honour of his father, is more ...(100 of 28364 words)