Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c23.30

v1.c23.30

Ball (1880: 229) commented that Sri Lanka did not have any lapis lazuli and the said item was most probably asteria (or star sapphire) or blue iolite (or dichroite), both of which occur in Sri Lanka. Lapis Lazuli might have come from the mines of Badakshan. Excavation made on the supposed site of Aśoka’s throne yielded sapphires, emeralds, mostly broken into splinters, two pebbles of iolite, some beads of lapis lazuli, coral and some imitation emeralds, made of glass etc. (*Proc. Asiatic Society, Bengal, May 1881, p. 89*) The hand-towels were most likely made of woven asbestos, which might have come from Afghanistan.