Alita Damascus steel-Ukku

Alita, Battle Angel refers to a Damascus steel sword. This was pioneered by the Tamils of India, called Ukku (Wootz). The technique is lost & still irreproducible. Arab traveler Edrisi called it the best steel in the world. It became popular & was exported globally, including to Damascus by the Arabs. This introduced previously unknown high carbon metallurgy to Europe & helped develop modern metallurgy. This led to the old Persian phrase: "Indian answer" which means to "cut with an Indian sword".