text: The world's first iron pillar was the Iron pillar of Delhi—erected at the times of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375&ndash;413), often considered as one of the finest pieces of ancient metallurgy. The swords manufactured in Indian workshops find written mention in the works of Muhammad al-Idrisi (flourished  1154). Indian Blades made of Damascus steel found their way into Persia. European scholars—during the 14th century—studied Indian casting and metallurgy technology.
  Indian metallurgy under the Mughal emperor Akbar (reign: 1556–1605) produced excellent small firearms. Gommans (2002) holds that Mughal handguns were probably stronger and more accurate than their European counterparts.
  Srivastava & Alam (2008) comment on Indian coinage of the Mughal Empire (established: April 21, 1526 - ended: September 21, 1857) during Akbar's regime:
  Statues of Nataraja and Vishnu were cast during the reign of the imperial Chola dynasty (200–1279) in the 9th century. The casting could involve a mixture of five metals: copper, zinc, tin, gold, and silver.  
  Considered great  feat in metallurgy, the hollow, Seamless, celestial globe was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589-90 CE), and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire.  These Indian metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting, and disguised plugs, in order to produce these globes.