The more science projects man into the future the deeper he probes into his past in search of his roots there.

- Dr. Germain Bazin
A great art historian and critic

“ The bronzes were part of sacred architecture, the living legacy of an unknown master artist who rendered these subtle and fluid forms as a means of expressing the divine. Made in accordance with codified principles, and sanctified by worship, these images were the link between Man and his God“

- R. Nagaswamy, noted Historian in South Indian Bronzes

“ . . . Indian art of all periods is close to life, not only to the life of the Gods but to all creatures on Earth. ...Although the proportions, pose and gestures of an image were unquestionably based on a strict metaphysical canon designed to ensure its fitness as an object of worship, within this framework the figure was made with an understanding of actual human anatomy, not only in its general articulations, but also in the maker's concern with connoting the I essential character of the flesh in terms of stone or bronze..."

- Benjamin Rowland, 'Art and Architecture of India'

The Chinese pilgrim, Hieun Tsang (seventh century A.D) has given a description of how even brass, an alloy of copper and Zinc, was being used extensively in India at the time of his visit and refers to a brass temple (height expected to reach 30 meters) proposed to be built by Emperor Harshavardhana.

- B. V. Subbarayappa,
in Vol. IV of History of Science,Philosophy and
Culture in Indian Civilization

 “ It is not many years since the production of such a pillar would have been an impossibility in the largest foundaries of the world, and even now there are comparatively few places where a similar mass of metals could be turned out"

- V. Ball, noted British Geologist, 1881

“ I enclose in one of the boxes a specimen of a kind of steel which is called 'wootz' and is in high esteem among the Indians. It appears to admit of a harder temper than anything we are acquainted with. I should be happy to have your opinion of its quality and Composition. .. "

- Helenus Scott
a resident from India who sent a sample to Sir J. Banks,
then the President of the British Royal Society of London
during 18th century A.D.

‘ the Indian process was both astonishing and ancient, and there was no evidence to show that any of the nations of antiquity besides the Hindus were acquainted with the art of making steel ‘

-J.M. Heath

The large heaps of zinc and lead-bearing residues and slags, clay retorts and fragments of furnaces in the Zawar area bear mute testimony to an ancient smelting industry of impressive magnitude; but there are only fragmentary and wholly inadequate accounts of this industry in written records. ...The smelting of zinc ore to produce metallic zinc in India till the 14th century A.D. has not been previously recognized in modern metallurgical literature. Commercial production of zinc metal in Europe did not take place until two centuries later, having been introduced there by traders in the 16th century A.D.

- Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India

The remains of early mining and metallurgy we have studied in India are at least as sophisticated as anything further west, and there are no parallels or analogies anywhere for the zinc smelting processes that we have uncovered. This was the sharp edge of technical innovation, taking place on a major scale well away from Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

- Paul T Craddock et aI, in Old World Archaemetallurgy, 1987