'Tall and Herculean' Advanced Ancient Tribe Built Civilization in India's Indus Valley

Researchers believe that what is now one of the most vulnerable tribes in central India built the ancient Indus Valley Civilization using unique metallurgical knowledge.

The Asurs (which in Sanskrit means “the demons”) is the only tribe in the world today with knowledge of how to extract iron from laterite rocks, while everywhere else it is extracted from hematite and magnetite. This tribe, with a total population of 8,000 today, is believed to be the great builders of the ancient era.

Ashis Sinha, a research scholar and local journalist, stated that the Asurs recognize three varieties of iron ore: Pola (magnetite), Bichi (hematite), and Gota (laterite). “By observation and experience, Asurs were able to locate a site for ores,” he said.

Geologist and researcher Nitish Priyadarshi shared a brief monograph series from 1993 by the Tribal Research Institute located at Ranchi with the Epoch Times, which mentions that the Asurs were originally from Illyria (ancient Greece), had adopted the culture of Babylon and Egyptian civilization, and gave this knowledge to Iran and India.

The report, originally written in Hindi, highlighted that the origin of the Asurs is indicated in many places in ancient Indian literature, like the Rigveda and Upanishads.

“The Asurs of 12 B.C. were the greatest. They established the Mohenjodaro and Harappan Civilizations. They were tall and Herculean in their builds,” the report said.

Yet another research work, “Iron Smelting by Asur Tribe: A Thing of the Past,” by Priyadarshi mentions that by the 16th century B.C., Asurs had conquered the Mediterranean coastal areas, were feared as sea-people, and had advanced up to the Indus river.

 “A research report also speculates that it was the Asurs who built the famous Ashoka Iron pillar currently at Delhi,” said Priyadarshi. The iron pillar is famous for its purity, which exceeds even that of modern smelting methods. It also shows few signs of corrosion, despite being almost completely pure iron.

Read more about the tribe and see more pictures here