Iron,Steel and Dravidian Kings

[Narayan R. Joshi]

In a diplomatic note of the 13th century BCE, Hattusilis III, the king of
Hittites, apologized to an Assyrian king," I have no good iron in my ware
house right now.. and promise to send some of the next good batch." The
South India had trade with the Jewish king Solomon(1000 BCE) and with
Phoenicians and with the other people from the ancient Lebanese coast.It is
hard to believe that the Dravidian kings and traders of the South India
from that era completely ignored use of iron by the people with whom they
had trade relations several centuries before king Solomon.Were they busy
only exporting spices, peacocks and monkeys and not importing anything?The
beginning of Iron age in India is tentatively set at 1000 BCE which is
roughly the time of Mahabharat war(Dr.Kochhar).Persian Emperor Darius
(middle of the 6th century BCE)was showing to his mother the high carbon
steel sword brought from India.Is the period of 500 years(1000BCEto500BCE)
enough to develop the high carbon steel sword technology when the rest of
the world took 1890 years(from 500 BCE to 1840 AD)of the known history to
figure out the secret?There is the evidence from the name "Polad" that the
ancient Indians knew the high carbon technology certainly between 500 BC
and 1AD.The name "Polad,Faulad"for steel in late Indian languages is
corrupted version of the earlier city name "Pu.skaraavatii", the capital of
the ancient Gaandhaara(NWF province of modern Pakistan).Pu.skaraavatii was
changed into Pukkhaavatii with time. Steel coming from Pukkhalaavatii was
called Pokkhalavat, Polahvad and later on Polad.Mr.L.S.Cousins (Nov5,2000
posting) may have some valid points.