Why was India got nickname of Sone Ki Chidiya?First we go to what any nickname denotes?
A nickname of any place evolves by going into memory system by real experiences of audience.(Sabji Mandi/Kasaikhana etc.)
Until and unless your memory has any sensual relation, it could not take hold for a persistent long period there.
(we shake hand with strangers ask their formal name and just forget in couple of years, but when we even seen in person some exceedingly tall/ small/ fat person we remember the incidence even decade after that actual event.)
So for a nickname recognisable globally it has to be either see able, touchable, hear able, Sniff able or taste able enough to make a clear place in memory.
Why it is emphasised here?
The era we are talking about was not the era of Google translate orWikipedia or face book advertisement where you can bombard anybrand in the memory of audience.
So without applying the analogy mentioned above of five senses your memory could not retain anything hypothetically for long period of time.
So it is proven beyond doubt that the nickname denoting anything must be sense-able by at least one of the five senses.
Now come to the word Sone which is known as gold in English should be see able, touchable, hear able, Sniff able or taste able by an individual, to make permanent space in the memory.
Without feeling it by yourself you could not believe upon existence of it (suppose someone say there is an article of relative density 40 and value of all gold of your nation, could you remember this obscured zydfghr element for a long time?)(Even had you remember elements of the Mendeleev's periodic table?)
So we have to analyse how an unknown traveller/visitor in (a so called poor illiterate) country have felt the gold?
In this country gold was used at three occasions as source of insurance, recognition, gift and prosperity.
First it was shown in marriages in the form of gifts and recognition (ornaments wore by participants)
Second it will be counter checked as an insurance at the arrival of harvest (Dipawali) and
Third it was donated to the temples in lieu of personal oath for keeping continuous prosperity for family.(temple is the bigger family)
Temples were for the big deals of life like oath taking and community place for guests.
The common men to make his her guest amused and show family’s prosperity decorate parts of temple with gold.
Collectively decorated by common men for centuries the temple covered by gold awed to these nomad or pirate. (In their culture either animals or slaves are the symbols of wealth.)
In their respective regions life style was to continuously move just like crow.
Had you ever tried to feed some crow?
If so you may have observed as soon as he find the food he will pick in his beakand fly immediately to some distance; sit there and eat the remaining part of food.
Because lot of food outside of his beak lost in this flying.
What we understand with this example is till we migrate consistently in lieu of more safety, security, fodder, loot, or whatever pursuit the Sustainability of wealth consistently deteriorates.(causes: lack of goodwill/ recognition/ skill/ theft/ loot etc.)
In the process of continuous migration you definitely accumulate much gold.(wealth)
In the scenario of migration all the wealth is moving with you.
The moment someone cut your throat the wealth belongs to the person whocut your throat.
In one to one combat, chances of win will disappear at the moment either yoursword broke or edge bent. (Ordinary iron has specific quality of brittleness if hardened much or mildness if softened much in its making process)
So here the value of your gold and all the wealth is significantly less than a pair of good swords made by good iron.
Here in northern Gangetic planes community is self sufficient in all their requirements (at barter levels). Regular agriculture made surplus food production sufficient to transport toward southern part of nation by Banjara community.
While in south part of country abundance of forest; given birth of evolution of iron.
The process to make the iron is as simple as make small clay pots, fill them neighbouring different type of rocks, soils(ore) cut specific leaves cover-up thatKullhad
So in entire country every raw material got from nature freely.
The skill set (how to, when to and why to) part just flowed fluidly via one generation to next generation.
And here is the crux.
Outside world (nomads/pirates) is in continuous process of finding better ground/postures migrating incessantly.
But the their dilemma is their entire life’s labour, sweat and blood created whatever wealth is just have less value than a fine pair of swords.
And the fact is that nowhere in the world such iron produced; except south of Godavari river in India.
Because of that from Damishque; traders will flock to buy the pieces of iron just sufficient to make a pair of swords (retail able size of our iron)
In India natives selling their ROCK and SOIL (ore fired in forest wood = Wootz steel)) in the barter of gold.
Now we understood how that gold arrived here.
Now we move to the third part of the question Chidiya
Our question here is what is Chidiya?
According to analogy described in nickname part of this article the Chidiyamust be either of see able, touchable, hear able, Sniff able or taste able to trigger the signal for significant space in memory of the visitor who may not understand your language.
Now come to the point at who coined this nick name?
The person came from outside were either nomad or pirate.
In their culture to feed their stomach they need flesh.
Here being in the unknown territory they can’t hunt big beast in the fear of caught by localites in lieu of destroying their wealth.
Nomad or pirate are the most opportunistic person, they will observe the circumstances very carefully to attack upon the opportunity of hunt/graze or loot.
Because their survival depends upon their brisk action, not any type of lethargy or lacklustre behaviour could feed them.
In modern day language you may identify them by the nickname of street-smart guys.
Now what that outsider will do to feed his stomach?
He has either to fight (what may or may not cost his life), beg, trade or hunt.
For most of them the easiest way to feed was hunt a thing which would be in abundance and nobody claim ownership of it.
Sparrows (Chidiya) were always in abundance in the agrarian region; is the source to feed them until indefinitely without any ruckus with localite.
Nobody will fight for anything which is in abundance and uncontrollable by your means (you can’t fight for water to anybody in rain until it personally heart you in anyway)
And to hunt it doesn’t require any arm which may cause you for suspicion.
A simple stone through will bring you your food. (Stone age tactics)
The folks who once arrived here and seen temples and ladies decorated withgold and eaten the Chidiya to satiated their hunger knows very well the abundance of Chidiya and gold in this part of the world.
But to understand the value of this small (land wise just 1.92% of earth) nation’s share of world in relation to Arable land percent of world in following picture must be considered
Because of this less than 2% earth mass and more than half of world's wealth India got nickname of Sone Ki Chidiya
To know more about the Wootz steel see