70 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS bones and marked teeth of Magadalinian aspect. Wooden artifacts of the Paleolithic Age have also not been discovered. 29. It is estimated that five-sixth of Bellary is covered with Archaean rocks which can be classified granitoid and gneissic. Of these the older are the granitoid. Most of the Archaeon rocks are porphyritic granites of light grey colour. The Dharwar rocks are rich in beds of hemetite quartzite of intense hardness. Both the Sandur hills and the Copper mountain range contain unlimited beds of hematite. They are rich in iron, richer than the magnetic iron of Salem and the richest in all India. Though the iron industry is now dead, until recently the softer ores were mined and smelted in a primitive way. The Sandur range also contains manganese ore, besides traces of old gold-workings. There are a oumber of intensive rocks in both the Archaean and Dharwar systems. The quartz runs and trap-dykes may be specially mentioned. On the eastern side of the Sandur hills one meets with good riband gasper of different hues ranging from red to white. Yet another material is found in these rocks and this is potstone or steatite valuable for building purposes. This has been very finely carved in the small Cālukyan temples in the taluks of Hadagalli and Harpanahalli: (Bellary District Gazatteer, pp. 13-21). It may be noted here that palaeolithics are not peculiar to South India. They are found in larger quantities in several states of Rajputana such as Jaipur in the Narbada Valley and in Orissa. They are not, however, to be seen in the Punjab, the Himalayan regions, Assam and Burma. There is a conflict of opinions among scholars as to whether the use of iron was introduced from Northern India into the South or the other way. (See Dr. Guha, The Census of India, 1931, Vol. I, Part III; and Prof. P.T.S. Aiyangar's Stone Age in India, p. 48).
