3. How Geography influenced Indian History

• The country today produces no tin. It is because it was found in Rajasthan and Bihar but was used up.
• The Harappans probably procured some tin from Rajasthan but the main supply came from Afghanistan, and even this was limited.
• Though they used some Bronze tools but their numbers were very less as compared to in Western Asia, Egypt and Crete.
• Therefore India had no proper Bronze Age as most of their tools were made from Cooper.
• Thus most of the bronze found in early Christian centuries came from Burma and the Malaya Peninsula which possessed plenty of tin, which made possible the use of Bronze on a large scale, especially for the statues of gods in South India.
• Tin for Bihar bronze statues of Pala times were possibly obtained from Gaya, Hazaribagh and Ranchi smelted till the middle of the last century.
• Andhra possesses resources in lead which explains the large number of lead coins in the kingdom of the Satavahanas, who ruled over Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in first 2 Christian centuries era.
• Much of the gold used in early times came from Central Asia and Roman empire. Gold coins thus came into regular use in the first 5 centuries of the Christian era, but once the supply from outside stopped, gold coins became rare.