A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORIGINS OF KGF - SECRET BEHIND IDENTIFYING THE GOLD

 

KGF or Kolar Gold Fields is situated in the southern parts of Bangarpet Taluk in Kolar District, Karnataka (Old Mysore) State. It lies in the Deccan Plateau of Central and South India and is roughly 3000 feet above sea level. The Doda Betta Range of Hills lies to the east of KGF and is 3195 feet above sea level.

Historically, it has been reported, that mining activity in the Kolar Gold Fields region dates back to almost 2000 years. It began as early as the First Century AD. The area was a barren, hilly place full of rocks and stones. Small Nomadic groups of people who moved about from place

to place first discovered that the rocks and stones in this particular area were different from other places.

The more clever or intelligent amongst them deduced that there was something valuable in these rocks and so they dug pits and tried to extract the gold ore from it. These nomads were poor and had very primitive implements, They exploited whatever gold ore they could get from these shallow pits, with their very limited infrastructure and implements then moved on to explore and find what

they could in another area. 

During the reigns of various dynasties in South India, gold mining was quite prevalent in the Kolar region. It has been recorded that during the Gupta Period in the 5 Century AD, gold was mined at a depth of 50 metres. The Chola Dynasty and other kings of South India including the Vijayanagar Empire and later Tipu Sultan continued the mining activity and their empires were made richer

because of the gold extracted from here.

However, these mining activities which were really on a very small scale of operations just about scratched the surface. The explorations didn't go down to more than a

few feet below the surface of the earth.

Apart from historical evidence about the origins of gold mining in the KGF area, there are many Folk tales and Legends as well which talk about the discovery of gold in the area, giving it a mythological touch. These folk tales and legends give different versions of the discovery of this precious metal in KGF. However, these are just folk tales and should be taken with a pinch of salt

I'll just highlight one or two of them.

According to one such legend, a poor shepherd while tending his sheep stumbled upon a rock of gold ore quite by accident during a violent dust storm. The dust storm was so violent in this dry, hilly, rocky region, that it raised so much dust and exposed a huge rock half-hidden in the ground. When the shepherd saw the rock over which he had stumbled, he couldn't believe his eyes. The rock had huge golden streaks on it. Needless to say, it was huge enough to make him a King and establish a kingdom of his own which he named 'Kolar'.