History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s3.1

v1.c17.s3.1

The gem categories of importance in the ancient world are listed in Table 4. The Sanskrit names confirm the ancient uses of the gem-minerals in India. Actually the etymological origin of many English names was Sankskritic e.g. ‘Kuruvinda’ gave rise to ‘Corundum’. Since many minerals acquired similar colours on account of impurities, hardness values, as listed in Table 4, were of great importance in identification. Coloured glasses were often used to imitate gems and therefore the ancient gemmologists checked hardness to distinguish between true and fake gems.