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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s3.t3: The Source and Etymology of Marakata

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s3.t3

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English

The Source and Etymology of Marakata

v1.c17.s3.t3.1

Though the occurrence of emerald in Ethiopia had been known to the ancients, the locality became completely forgotten. The earliest known emerald locality is in upper Egypt, not far from the coast of the Red Sea. The ancient mines discovered by Cailliaud in 1819 A.D. have been dated as early as 1650 B.C.; these are located in a depression of the long range of mountains which borders the west coast of the Red Sea. The mines are in Jebel (=Mountain) Sikait (also Sakketto, from Sanskrit Saikat?) and Jebel sabara (Zabara or Varvara in Sanskrit).

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Pliny mentioned the rocks about Coptos, as containing the celebrated mines of the old. These mines, known as Cleopatra’s emerald mines, located a little south of latitude 25°N, were close to the sea-coast as well as the desert and known as such by the Indian traders (Bauer, 1968: 310-311).

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The name *marakata* bears the imprint of *maru* (desert) and *kata* (from Pliny’s ‘Coptos’ or *saikata* meaning sea-coast or the mountain Sakketto?). In the justification of our hypothesis regarding the origin of word *marakata*, we may quote: Buddhabhatta (*Ratnaparīkṣā* 150) mentioning *marakata* mine (*ākara*) past the sea- coast (*tīradeśe*), mountain Varvara and near the desert (*maroḥ samīpe*). Agastimata (287) and *Ratnasaṃgraha* (13) provide similar topographical descriptions. The name *marakata* also resembles *marukātār* and it may not be unlikely that some emerald was marketed across the desert (*maru*) around the state of Qatar.

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The *Mahābhārata* (12.46.33) has used another name for emerald, and that is *masāragalu*, *masāra* or *masāraka*. Monnier-Williams explains in his Sanskrit dictionary that Egypt was named as *Miśar* or *Misar* in Sanskrit, and *galu* means a gem. Therefore *masaragalu* may be interpreted as the gem from Egypt, and that is consistent with the etymological origin of *marakatā* as suggested, for the first time, by us. The 4th century A.D. Prakrt text *Aṅgavijjā* (58.20) mentions *veruliya*, *maragata* as well as *masārakalla*, meaning beryl and emerald.

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Emerald has few more name - equivalents in Sanskrit: *Harinmaṇi* (green gem), *Garuḍodgāra*, *Gārutmata*, *Pānnā* etc. The last three may be briefly explained. *Ratnaparīkṣā* and *Agastimātā* narrated the myth or the folklore that gems had been derived from the body of the slain demon Bala: diamond from his bones, pearl from the teeth, ruby from the blood, sapphire from the eyes, emerald from the bile etc. The mythical bird Garuḍa had taken the green bile of the demon in its mouth and then vomitted it (hence the name Gārutmata and Garuḍodgāra) on a mountain on the sea- coast near a desert beyond Barbara country’. We have earlier referred to Buddhabhaṭṭa’s Sanskrit text (RP 150). Agastimata (285) mentioned Garuḍa as the king of the serpent-demon: ‘pānnāgādhipaḥ’. Pānnā also means something fallen down or dropped. Thus, the dropped bile of the serpent-demon or emerald also came to be known as pānnā. It is an open question whether the location of the famous diamond mine in Bundelkhand was named Pānnā because it also yielded some emerald or pānnā. It is quite possible that the place was named Pānnā to indicate emerald which resembles chrysoprase (nickel-containing compact quartz), widely occurring in the area, in greenness. The 100 ft deep old diamond mine at Majgoha (Majgama) south-west of Panna is now a cone- shaped depression filled with green mud. In this connection we also recall that Chanhu-daro showed light green beads and cups of fuchsite-quartzite which might have originated from Mysore. These all resemble beryl-like materials in their typical colour. The Sanskrit word marakata was the origin of smaragdos in Greek, smaragdus in Latin, esmeralda in Spanish and emerald in English.

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