02-24-2011, 11:36 AM
They boiled it to purify it. Sanskrit documents of about 2,000 BC (eg. the Susruta and Ousruta sutras) prescribe boiling, exposure to the sun, immersing red hot metal articles, adding various concoctions of flowers, herbs and seeds and filtration through sand and charcoal for improving the appearance and taste of water. The ancient Indians had an extensive body of empirical knowledge and lore concerning water. It seems entirely plausible that such knowledge could have found its way to the near east, or have been independently discovered, by the time of Cyrus.
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