Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c11.s2.13

v1.c11.s2.13

Semi-precious stones were used with fine colour effects for beads and other ornaments. Of these, the majority, including rock-crystal, haematite, agate, chalcedony, onyx, carnelian, jasper, riband jasper, bloodstone, plasma, tachylite and the exquisite azure-blue nepheline, sodalite, were obtained from Kishangarh, Rajputana, the Punjab, Kathiawar or Central India. Haematite which is found up the Persian gulf as well as in Rajputana, the Punjab, the Central Provinces and Bihar, and plasma, which is found in the beds of Krishna and Godavari might have come to Mohenjo-Daro from the nearer regions. On the other hand, the nearest spot from which the beautiful green amazon stone (a variety of microcline feldspar) could be obtained is Doddabetta in the Nilgiris, far away in southern India, and it is probable that amethyst was collected from the Deccan trap. Lapis lazuli, turquoise and jadeite ‘were not obtainable in India at all’. The first is believed to have come from Badakshan, a province of Northern Afghanistan; the second from the Persian Province of Khorasan — through it is found in the other parts of Persia also, as well as in Sistan — and jadeite, a hard form of jade, from either the Pamirs, Eastern Turkestan or Tibet.