History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c17.s3.t3.5

v1.c17.s3.t3.5

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.