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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1: Mineral-Wise Discussion

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1

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Contents

Mineral-Wise Discussion

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Warmington (1928, 1974: 235-60) based his excellent treatise on mineral products in the Indo-Roman trade on the early travellers' reports, specially Pliny's thirty-seventh book and arranged a mineral-wise discussion based on E.S. Dana's *System of Mineralogy*. We would also follow a similar classification, starting with oxides such as quartz and corundum-related minerals etc., then silicates, then element like diamond and lastly the metals. Exports from India would be discussed chiefly; imports into India would also be mentioned.

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Fig. 16.1: Indo-Roman Trade Routes and Ports in the Christian Era. Inset: Tamil Regions (enlarged).

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[Figure: DISTRIBUTION OF ROMAN COINS ⊙ 1ST CENT. AD HOARD ◎ 2ND CENT. AD HOARD ⊗ 3RD-4TH C. AD HOARD
• 1ST CENT. AD SINGLE ○ 2ND CENT. AD SINGLE × 3RD-4TH C. AD SINGLE

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DISTRIBUTION OF SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES

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CHALCEDONIC QUARTZ CRYSTALLINE QUARTZ BERYL]

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Fig. 16.2: Distribution of Semi-precious Stones and Roman Coins during the era of Indo-Roman Trade.

The Quartz Group

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Of the oxides of silicon grouped as quartzes and opals, the most frequently used were the chalcedonies (SiO₂, nH₂O) called agate, carnelian, sard, onyx and so on. The Romans probably never discovered the German deposits of these materials and certainly imported them from India, as the reports of Pliny, *Periplus* etc. clearly indicate.

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The Indian stones of this variety has always been from the amygdaloidal flow of the Deccan trap, chiefly from the State of Rajpipla (Ratanpur near Broach) and also from the inland Narmadā Valley regions around Jabalpur etc. The Bhils have been known to collect these stones and heat them in sun or in cow-dung cake flames. Except a few types such as onyx, cat's eye, the rest of the agates develop carnelian-type colour of different shades. The burning of agates was fully described as early as 1517 by Barbosa. (Schoff, 1912: 193-94) This must have been an age-old practice. Final polishing and export was done at the ports of the Gulf of Cambay.

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*Periplus* clearly states that ‘murrhine’ vases came from Barugaza (Bhrgukaccha in the Gulf of Cambay). Most authors have concluded that ‘murrhine’ is nothing but red and white agate in which the material is clouded with various colours, and does not show the regular stratification of the Onyx. (Huntingford: 1980, 138-39) The origin of the ‘murrhine’ was unknown to the Greeks and Romans before *Periplus*, and they thought that the materials came from Perthia (Persia) through which the Indian material was probably exported by land-route till the Romans established direct trade with India. Large blocks and cups of agate are still being made and sold today in Cambay and Broach.

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V. Ball (1880: 235) mentioned the minority view of Prof. Herman Müller that Murrha of the ancients was made of fluorspar. Ball did not support this in view of the fact that the murrhine cups in Rome were made of agate and not fluorspar. However, he himself noted in the addenda (1880: 263) that “blocks of unwrought fluorspar were found in the Marmorata at Rome”. Ball could not find any fluorspar in India, but we know now that there are fluorspar deposits in Gujarat, which could have been exported along with agate and carnelian to pass as ‘myrrhine’.

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In the Roman empire yellowish-red and red-brown sards or carnelians of India were in great demand, and many varieties of items such as drinking cups, vases, vessels etc. used to be made out of it.

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Onyx is like agate of different colours layered in even planes and straight boundaries, so that this could be used for cameos. This was also known as moss agate or banded agate and preferred over agate by the Romans. Sardonyx is an onyx with some sard or (red) carnelian layers. Nicolo is an onyx with a dark layer. Periplus records that from Paithana, (Pratisthana on the Godāvarī?) twenty days south of Barugaza, is brought down to Barugaza in wagons travelling over vast areas without roads, a great deal of onyx stone’. Such stones, exported to Rome for centuries, are still being mined near Ratanpur, cut, polished and sold largely in Cambay. Some of the best onyxes to-day come from the districts of Betul and Chhindwara, and some amount could have been despatched from this area also for the eventual export through Barugaza. During the reign of Augustus, there was a spurt in the Indian trade of fine layered agates, onyx, sardonyx and nicolo the first two above all for cameos, and the nicolo for ring-stone intaglios.

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Other varieties of chalcedony (SiO₂, nH₂O) — apart from agate, carnelian, onyx and sardonyx — which constituted part of the Indo-Roman trade were chrysoprase (apple-green due to nickel), plasma (bright to emerald green), heliotrope or blood stone (plasma with small red spots of jasper looking like blood) etc. Pliny’s emerald green ‘iaspis’ is probably chrysoprase according to Warmington. The name ‘iaspis’ is actually equivalent to jasper (opaque-coloured quartz, unhydrated SiO₂), whereas Warmington equated this with chalcedony (SiO₂, nH₂O). Plasma objects were abundant in the Roman era. Unworked lumps of plasma have been found on the Roman sites. Most of the plasma must have come from India which possesses deposits in the north of the Bhima river, Krishna and Godāvarī river beds, etc. Pliny’s green ‘prasius’ and ‘large emerald’ were most probably plasma according to Warmington.

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The opaque ‘bloodstone’ and the translucent ‘heliotrope’ actually belong to the same species under chalcedony. Pliny notes that for this material India was the chief source. Its import and use in the Roman territory increased after the second century AD.

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Varieties of (unhydrated) Quartz

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Red jasper was much esteemed in the Roman empire. Pliny’s ‘haematitis’ was bright red jasper which was available from the valleys of Narmadā and Sone in India. This used to be exported with vermilion-coloured coral from the North-West India. Pliny speaks of a pale tawny variety of ‘haematitis’ called ‘menui’ by the Indians, black jasper or touchstone, often used with antique nicolos, and also ribbon, blue and yellow jaspers — all coming from India.

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The ‘asteria’ of India was apparently quartz cat’s eye coming from Ratanpur, Malabar and Sri Lanka. The exported item aventurine quartz originated from Bellary, Madras.

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The fine purple amethyst was very popular in the Greek and Roman periods. It should be noted that impurities such as manganese colours both quartz and corundum pink. Warmington presumes that the exported amethysts were essentially quartz type. Anyway he does distinguish between ‘five kinds’ of amethyst: purple, imitated by the purple-dyers, inferior sapphire-coloured, called ‘socondion’ (saugandhika?) by the Indians, two pale kinds and another wine-red (garnet?). Some of these came from Sri Lanka, which also supplied yellow quartz or ‘citrine’ (often known as false topaz) and pink rose-quartz.

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Pure crystallised silica or rock crystal was a very important item of Indian export to the Romans and Greeks, who used various items made out of it: ring-stones, hand-balls, burning lenses, crystal cabinets, drinking cups etc. ‘as marks of wealth, luxury and extravagance’. At Arikamedu, diamond drills were used for drilling holes into rock crystal pieces for making various artefacts. We shall discuss this topic later. Supplies of rock crystal came from Rajmahal hills, Sambalpur, Aurangpur near Delhi etc. Vellum in Punjab has been famous for cutting and polishing of crystals. Pliny, Strabo and Martial bestowed high praises for Indian crystals and imitation rock-crystal glass which were stained to produce various colours resembling those of real precious stones.

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Opal is amorphous colloidal silica in massive form showing play of colours. The Romans obtained opal from India. While the cacholong opal, opaque, bluish white or porcelain white, was obtained chiefly from Central Asia, ‘sandastros’, a matrix of opal and non-opalescent opals from the Deccan traps were essentially Indian exports. The Sanskrit word upala or precious stone was probably converted to the name opal, and not the other way round as suggested by Warmington.

Corundum-Related Minerals

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The hard corundums (hardness 9) of colourless variety (Al₂O₃: Sanskrit kuruvinda, Tamil kurrandam), also known as emery powder, was available in Rewa state, South India, Karnataka etc. and specifically mentioned as an abrasive in Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra. The Romans imported this material from India for marble-sawing, polishing and stone-working.

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The coloured varieties of corundum known as sapphire, ruby etc. were used as gemstones. Warmington refers to sapphire as Pliny’s hyacinthos, Arabic jacut. But there is some confusion. (Ball points out that in the nineteenth century, jacut meant in India ruby or inferior spinel, called lāl; hyacinthos has been variously translated as jacinth, ruby and amethyst). Schoff suggests, and many scholars concur, that Pliny’s hyacinthos was perhaps a violet or dark blue sapphire from the crystalline rocks of the Southern Sri Lanka. Its natural market was the Malabar coast at the time of the Periplus. Schoff further suggests that ruby was also available from the same place as the sapphire in Sri Lanka, and was probably classified by Pliny (37.25) under the category named carbunculus. Rubies and sapphires of Burma were not tapped at that time. Ceylonese mines yielded more sapphires (indranīla) than rubies.

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India also sent to Rome pale, honey-coloured and orange-coloured sapphires and ‘nilion’, dark blue sapphire (Sanskrit nīlamaṇi and nīlaratna). The Indian ‘chrysolithi’ was probably yellowish sapphire, which are still sold in Sri Lanka as (false) topazes. The Roman chroniclers were often unable to trace the origin of these minerals, because the Sri Lankan and Indian products were sometimes sold to them through intermediaries like the Axumites.

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There is considerable confusion as to whether Pliny’s ‘lychnis’ and ‘anthrax’ (latin carbunculus) mean garnet or ruby. Hydapses are probably the ruby, part of which might have come from the gem gravels of Sri Lanka and the rest from Burma. The balas ruby came from the Badakshan. Sri Lanka also produced and supplied corundum cat’s eye and chrysoberyl.

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Another oxide mineral, magnetite, was the constituent of loadstone rock of India. This was known to Ptolemy and attracted the attention of the early writers.

Silicate Gem Minerals

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Silicates are conventionally classified in terms of Si : O ratio in the network: 3-D network (1 : 2), sheet structure (2 : 5), double chain structure (4 : 11), cyclosilicate (1 : 3), individual tetrahedra (1 : 4) etc. We would also continue our discussion under the above classification system.

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The most important sub-group having Si : O ratio 1 : 2 or 3-D structure is quartz and related minerals which has been discussed earlier. The other important sub-group is the feldspars.

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The feldspar called moonstone came from the gem-gravels of South-Western Sri Lanka, specially Dumbara. Warmington doubted whether it could be Pliny’s ‘astrion’ or his ‘ceraunia’, and suggested that it could be his ‘selenitis’. The other mineral in this sub-group, lapis lazuli came from the ancient mines at Firgamu in Badakshan by caravans through Afghanistan to Barbarikon (near Karachi), and the Romans took it as an Indian product.

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Jadeite, Nephrite and Asbestos belong to the Actinolite family. The first two might have travelled from Turkestan and China to the West. But we cannot say with certainty whether the materials were known as ‘iaspis’ or ‘yashm’ as suggested by Warmington, and whether much of this commodity passed through the territories of the Bactrian and Kuṣāṇa kings in India for the Romans. The Romans obtained incombustible fibrous mineral called asbestos or chrysotile, ‘valued it as highly as best pearls, and had it woven into wicks, handkerchiefs and shrouds’. They must have obtained their supplies from Badakshan, Afghanistan, which also seems to have been the source of the hand-towels of asbestos sent by king Aśoka to his counterpart in Sri Lanka on 247 BC.

Beryl-group of Minerals

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These minerals belong to Si:O ratio 1:3 cyclosilicate family. The beryl (light-green) and the emerald (bright green) gems were adored by the Romans. Almost all of these came from India. The emeralds are generally known as marakata in Sanskrit, and the Greek equivalent could be smaragdus which is stated to be ‘of twelve varieties’ (Pliny, 37.16-17). Bluish green aquamarine is one of them. Pliny comments that beryls are rarely found outside India (37.20) He noted that ‘the lapidaries cut beryls of a hexagonal form, when the colour is heightened by the reflection from the angles’ (naturally grown crystals are hexahedral). ‘The most esteemed beryls are those which in colour resemble the pure green of the sea. The people of India are marvellously fond of beryls of an elongated form, which they prefer without the addition of gold’. The Sanskrit drama Mṛcchakaṭika describes jeweller’s shops. The vendors of pastes and precious stones in Kaviripaddinam (Pillai, 25) must have sold many ‘false’ or imitation beryls.

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Vaidūrya or beryl was mentioned by Pāṇini but the precise location of the mine was not given. Was it near Kangayam in the South, or in modern Bidar? In the Mahābhārata, the mineral is connected with the Satpura range which the Pāṇḍavas had to cross to reach the Narmada. This epic also refers to beryl from Simhaladvipa (2.48.30) and Mount Nīla (6 .7.3) During the Roman period, the Indian beryls came chiefly from Kangayam in the South, at the Toda hills, Padiyur in Coimbatore, Punnata (Pounnata or Punnāḍa in South Indian inscription) in the south-west of Mysore, and at Vaniyambadi in the district of Salem. These beryls were exported through different routes — Coimbatore beryl partly controlled by the Cheras sent through Ponnani to Muziris, the Punnata beryls also to the Cola coast and then round to the West. The Pāṇdyas did not have any large share in this trade. Warmington suggested that the Coimbatore reserve was ‘a source of contests between the three kingdoms’.

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The beryl trade from the Tamil lands is mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy. Pliny knew that the Greek equivalent of beryl, enerros, was derived from the Sanskrit word Vaidūrya or Veluriya. Huntingford observed (1980: 71) that the reference to the beryl trade is missing in the *Periplus*. It could be on account of some political struggle between the different South Indian kingdoms during that era.

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By the time of Ptolemy, the sources at Punnata and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) were known and the beryl trade picked up again. In the Coimbatore district have been unearthed splendid six-sided beryl prisms and large quantities of Roman coins, the link between the two items being evidently a thriving international trade.

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The Roman ladies used to wear polished beryl ‘cylindri’ in their ears; two Spanish inscriptions indicate that such commodities were highly valued. Roman bowls were decorated with them. There are engraved examples and splendid relics of the ancient Indo-Roman trade in beryl. (Warmington, 1928, 1974: 250-51)

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Bright green emerald, containing a little chromium, is a variety of beryl. This mineral, known in Sanskrit as *masāra* or *marakata*, is restricted to the Udaipur district of Rajasthan; it never came from the South. During the first-second century AD, the mineral used to come from the Asiatic side of the Ural mountains and was exported to Rome through India.

Garnet Family of Minerals

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Indian garnets became popular during Alexander’s campaign. This group is an orthosilicate, RII₃RIII₂ (SiO₄)₃ being the general formula. One variety, *pyrope* (fire-like), which is a deep-red (often transparent) Mg-Al garnet with some substitution by Ca, Fe and Cr, have always been extensively mined and worked at Jaipur. Alamandines, which are FeII-Al garnets with some replacement by Mg and FeIII and are brownish-red, have always occurred widely in India and Sri Lanka. These are evidently Pliny’s ‘carbunculi’, part of the Roman stock of which is of Indian origin and the rest Carthaginian, Etruscan or Ethiopian. Today, alamandines occur and are processed widely in India, but during the Roman era, the Jaipur region produced the best *syriams* which are violet-tinted pyropes, and the chief emporia for the convex-cut garnets, earlier called ‘carbuncles’/‘alabandenon’s, actually alamandines, were Cambay, Broach, Kaviripaddinam etc. Of course, Sri Lanka produced a large variety of garnets which were exported through the Indian ports. Reddish-brown garnet pebbles of Sri Lanka — ‘cinnamon stone’ or ‘hessonite’ were found in Roman collections. Warmington thinks that these are Pliny’s ‘chryselectri’. There are Roman relics of large pieces of Indian garnet, and Pliny refers to cups, plates and vessels made out of them for sophisticated uses.

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Pliny’s *chrysolithos*, supposed to come from Abyssinia and the islands in the Red Sea, has been adjudged by most scholars to be topazios of the Greeks or topaz which did not go from India. Yellow chrysolite is R₁II R₂II (SiO₄) an orthosilicate whereas (yellow) topaz is (Al (F, OH)₂) AlSiO₄. On the other hand the topazion of Pliny, according to Ball (1880: 237), “was in part at least chrysolite, as he says it yielded to the file and wore with use”, and therefore, could not have been hard topaz. Later, the Periplus mentions chrysolithos being imported to Barbarikon in India and this material was most likely topaz from the Red Sea. Most scholars admit that the nomenclatures of the two different kinds of minerals — topaz and chrysolite — were confusingly interchanged by Pliny and the subsequent Roman writers.

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Another orthosilicate (of zirconium), Zircon, ZrSiO₄ is often brownish due to the trace impurity of iron oxide. Hyacinth or jacinth is the orange, or red variety of zircon (a variety of garnet also is known as hyacinth). Colourless or smoky variety of zircon is called jargon. Gemstones made out of the above materials from the gem-gravels of Sri Lanka were widely used in the Roman empire. There is a fine model of a bull and other fine jacinths, and cameos which indicate Roman trade with Sri Lanka.

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The last gem-mineral under the silicate family that we may discuss is tourmaline which is a complex sub-silicate of boron and aluminium, with some replacement in the structure by Mg, Fe, alkali metals and fluorine. Usually bluish black, vertically striated and of vitreous to resinous luster, tourmalines have a wide range of colour. Yellow and brown crystals are common in Sri Lanka. The name itself is derived from turamali in Ceylonese (applied to zircon by jewellers of Sri Lanka). Tourmalines of different kinds from Sri Lanka and Seringapatam used to be exported to Rome. These were mentioned as lychnis by Pliny.

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Pliny’s callaina (37.33) was most probably turquoise, a hydrous phosphate of aluminium and copper coming from ‘the countries living back of India’, which is definitely Khorasan (Persia) according to Schoff. The finest stones came from the mines near Maaden, about 48 miles north of Nishapur. Some came from the ‘Caucasos’ or Hindu Kush. Down the Kabul and the Indus river, this commodity used to reach Barbarikon, where the authors of the Periplus found the stones offered for sale. The stone became popular quite suddenly in the Augustan period, the emerald-green (colour giving the name callaina) being valued most highly. The blue turquoise (Pliny’s callais) was also found in the Roman collection. India though not the origin, has always been the centre of distribution for these stones.

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Some Indian marble and oriental alabaster, originating from Makrana in Rājputānā, Narmadā Valley, Raials in Ulwar (may be also some from Carmania), were exported to the Roman empire and used as perfume boxes or jars.

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Pliny mentioned about some minerals named atizoe, amphidanes, chelonia, eumeces, zoranisceus, and others resembling obsidian, all marked as exports from India, the true identity of which could not be identified by Warmington (1974: 256).

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Several naturally occurring materials of organic origin, though not classifiable as ‘minerals’, were also exported from India as precious commodities. Warmington mentions that Archelaos, king of Cappadocia under Tiberius received supplies of fossil resin Amber (with pine bark still sticking on) from India.

On Pearl

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The pearl is a deposit formed around a foreign substance in the mantle of pearly mussel, *Meleagrina margaritifera*, Ham., family Aviculidae, a parasitic larva, the larval condition of a cestode of tapeworm. This cestode passes from the body of the pearl mussel into that of a file-fish or oyster or ray. The oysters etc. produce nacre which clings to the foreign piece in their ovaries. The nacre is the constituent of a pearl, and consists of thousands of layers of crystallised calcium alternating with thin sheets of protein. During this twentieth century, Mikimoto has simulated the above process in mass scale production of artificial pearls. (A Passion for Pearls, Frontline, July 23 — August 5, 1988)

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The Greeks were acquainted with the Bahrein pearls which have luster but yellow tints; to the foreigners the white pearls of India have always been much more covetable. During the Roman period the pearl trade was controlled by the Pāṇḍyas and the Colas. The Pāṇḍyas depended on Gulf of Manner and the fisheries at Kolkai, controlled from Madura, whereas the pearls sold at Argaru and Kaviripaddinam in the Cola kingdom came obviously from the Palk Strait. The best species of oysters known as (*Pinctada Vulgaris*) with beautiful silvery white colour flourishes in the Gulf of Manner. On the Ceylon side the oyster bank lies 68 miles off the Western coast.

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Pliny (9.54-58) wrote that the pearls came into general use in Rome after the surrender of Alexandria, although this gem first began to be used about the time of Sylla. “The first rank, and the very highest position among all valuables belongs to the pearl . . . . . The most productive of pearls is the island of Taprobane (Sri Lanka)”. The author of the *Periplus* observed the convicts in the kingdom of Pāṇḍya diving for pearls in the shallow water between Komarei (Cape Comorin) and Kolkai. The materials were first brought to Argalou (Arikamedu?). Taprobane (Sri Lanka) also produced pearls along with the precious stones.

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Pliny described the then knowledge about the natural formation of pearls:

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The origin and production of the shell-fish is not very difficult from that of the shell of the oyster. When the genial season of the year exercises its influence on the animal, it is said, that, yawning, as it were, it opens its shell, and so receives a kind of dew, by means of which it becomes impregnated; and that at length it gives birth, after many struggles, to the burden of its shell, in the shape of pearls, which vary according to the quality of the dew.

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Pliny further described how these Indian pearls were adored by the Roman ladies:

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Our ladies glory in having pearls suspended from their fingers, or two or three of them dangling from their ears, delighted even with the rattling of the pearls as they knock against each other.... I once saw Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caius, covered with emeralds and pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets, and on her fingers, and the value of which amoun-ted in all to 40 million sesterces. (Quotations taken from Schoff)

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Warmington gives further details (1928, 1974: 169-71) about the appreciation of and infatuation with the Indian pearls in the Roman world. St. Gregory commented, "Small is the pearl, but queen among jewels". St. Paul lamented the wearing of pearls by women and girls. Quintilian observed that the craving was not confined to one sex. Emperor Nero possessed large quantities of pearls; he adorned shoes, beds, bed chambers, actors' wands and actors' masks with them, swallowed them in drink (to feel great!). Pliny recounted the well-known story of Cleopatra dissolving a great pearl in vinegar and swallowing it in presence of Antony. Her treasure of 'uniones' (largest and best pearls) was known as 'uniones Cleopatrani' which passed on from one owner to another, such as virtuous Calpurnia. All these materials came from India.

On Ivory

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The early civilizations of Babylon, Egypt and Persia obtained ivory from India and the African supply was never tapped until Ptolemy II. Even later, the African supply was hardly adequate to fulfil the Roman needs (during the times of Caius, Nero and Seneca) and the Indo-Roman trade always included ivory as an item of export from India. The Romans used ivory at first in temples, statues and later in furnitures of a wide variety.

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The *Periplus* records that India used to export ivory through the ports of Barugaza, Limurikē and Dēsarēnē (in Orissa). The elephant population was of course in the hinterlands of Gujarat, South India and Orissa.

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Schoff recorded (1912: 193) how the Sanskrit word ibha (elephant) and ibha-danta (elephant’s teeth) were converted to abu in Egyptian, Semitic article el prefixing ibha-danta to give elephas in Greek, and the English words ‘elephant’ and ‘ivory’. The primacy of India in the commercial usage of ivory is thus established.

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The Periplus further records (chapter 63) that near the estuary of the Ganges “there is an island called Khrusē, which has the best tortoise-shell of all places in the Erythraean Sea”; this was an important commodity of export to the Roman empire. Seneca criticised the prevailing luxury of Roman men and women and the use of costly tortoise-shell. Just as pearls were adored by the Romans, the Indians liked red corals from the Mediterranean Sea which used to be imported to India by the Romans. Conch-shells, or chank-shells were exported at Marallo (Mantotte?) during the sixth century AD. Even earlier, the artistic products made by the chank-cutters in Korkai and Kaviripaddinam found their ways to the West.

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Lac or shellac (from lac-insect Tachardia Lacca) used to be exported from India since the time of Ctesias, when the Persian kings preferred to have their fabrics dyed with lac dye. The Romans probably obtained the dye separately. Indian Sandyx, a kind of vermilion-red was probably a mixture of lac dye, ruddle and red sulphide of arsenic coming from Persia and Carmania. The author of the Periplus states that lac-dye was exported from Ariace to the West via East African coast. Shellac as a whole seems to have been used in the form of deep-hollowed dishes, covering wooden platters etc. in Rome during the beginning of the second century AD. (Warmington, 1928, 1974: 178-79)

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We have discussed only those materials of organic origin which have mineral-like properties (such as lustre, colour, hardness): amber, pearl, ivory, tortoise-shell, conch-shell, lac etc. Warmington has discussed a much larger number of animal-products and plant products (silk, gum-resin, spices, medicinal plants etc.) which are not mineral-like and hence fall outside of our purview. Of course these also constituted important features in the Indo-Roman trade.

On Diamond

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Now we come to discuss the last item and the most precious mineral, diamond, which has been known in India for more than twenty-five centuries. The Sanskrit word vajra for diamond (also stands for thunderbolt) shows that the Indians were aware if its hardness and strength. The Greeks also appreciated its properties and coined the word *adamas* (a ‘privative’, and *damaō* ‘to subdue’) meaning that which cannot be sudued. Pliny explained it further: “Its hardness is beyond all expression, while at the same time it quite sets fire at defiance” (indicating high melting point). Pliny also mentioned (37.15) its hexangular and hexahedral forms (actually it is octahedral), and described it ‘as the most precious of all possessions, known for a long time only to very few kings’.

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India was for long the only source of diamonds known to the European nations. Pliny described the use of diamond splinters by gem-engravers. Manilius commented that the point of the diamond was more precious than gold; even sapphire the hardest stone could be cut by diamond. Shortly we would discuss the use of diamond by the ancient Indian technicians in drilling rock-crystal gems. Indian diamonds set in the Roman rings and gold seals are open for display in the British Museum.

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Neither Pliny nor the author of the *Periplus* were aware of the exact locations of the diamond in India. Warmington has discussed (1928, 1974: 109-10, 117) how Ptolemy (AD 90-168) was the first to add detailed descriptions of the Indian regions, not contained in the accounts of the previous geographers. His specific references to the sources of pepper, beryl, diamond, to the contemporary Śakas and Kuṣāṇas and to Mathurā, ‘Modura of the Gods’ etc. are indeed noteworthy.

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In the first century, diamonds were bought at Muziris and Nelcynda, but the sources were unknown to the Romans. During the second century AD, some of the sources were known to the foreigners. Ptolemy reported that the Indian diamonds were coming to the ports from Sabarae (near Sambhalpur), the river Adamas, the Sank branch of the Brahmani river, and Kosa (near Betul) in the East Malwa region.

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Pannā, one of the famous sources of Indian diamonds (Pannā in Sanskrit means beryl — was the place also a source of beryl in the ancient times?) is situated in or near Eastern Malwa. B.N. Mukherjee (1970: 22-36) suggested that this area was indeed known as Ākara, the area of mines (of diamond), during the era of Sātavāhanas. The Nasik inscription of the mother of Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi describes him as the lord of Ākara. Kaniṣka I, whose reign began in AD 78 probably annexed Ākara with the diamond mines from one of the Sātavāhana kings, Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi or his son Vāsiṣṭhīputra Puḷumāvi. The Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman I of about the year AD 149-50 describes him as the lord of Ākarāvanti (Ākara and Avanti) and states that his treasury was overflowed with precious stones including *vajra* or diamond obtained through tribute, tolls and shares.

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Ptolemy’s Kosa, a diamond mining area, was stated to be situated near the Vindhya range and along the bank of the Narmadā. It was certainly near Eastern Malwa of Ākara. Ptolemy had collected ‘recent’ data about the diamond mines in India from the traders. Thus it seems that by the latest possible date for Ptolemy’s information on India viz., AD 150, diamond of Central India had become an important article of Indo-Roman commerce.

On Arikamedu, A Sea-Port

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We would discuss the ancient use of diamond bits in drilling precious gems and then the Indo-Roman trade on metals, and lastly the items of import to India. But before presenting these topics we may digress a little and mention the important archaeological findings on an Indian sea-port of antiquity, Arikamedu, handling international trade during the Roman era. (Wheeler, Ghosh and Krishna Deva, 1946: 17-124)

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Today Arikamedu is a village two miles south of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. Archaeological excavations by Mortimer Wheeler and his co-workers have confirmed this site to be an ancient sea-port with industrial establishments and warehouse. Its geographical position is consistent with the general indications given for Pōdoukē by the Periplus and Ptolemy. A re-evaluation by Vimala Begley (1983: 461-81) has placed the period of occupation between 250 BC and AD 300. But it is unlikely that the Roman contact began much before 23 BC, the time of Augustus. The Northern Sector having a 150 feet long warehouse made of brickwork and water-roofing lime-mortar or plaster was built around AD 50. The Southern Sector containing a vat for dyeing the muslin was inhabited somewhat later. The town must have been famous for bead-making.

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Arikamedu potteries were made of coarser fabric with varying qualities of clay not levigated as in the Northern PGW or NBPW. The potteries were often salt-glazed. Polished bright red slips corresponded to haematite and not limonite or geothite (since weight loss or heating was negligible). Black slip on some potteries was due to reduced magnetic oxide of iron.

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Large scale manufacture of beads at Arikamedu is proven by the excavated findings of more than two hundred beads and unfinished fragments of a large number of semi-precious stones. Besides the semi-precious stones mentioned below, several pieces of obsidian and green jasper have also been found, together with much glass slag.

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The materials used for the manufacture of beads were chalcedonic quartz, including agate and carnelian, crystalline quartz, including crystal and amethyst, shell, bone, gold, terracotta, faience and glass. Carnelian is distributed in all the periods with a fair uniformity. During the later (post-Arretine) period, the use of amethyst seems to have declined, while those of agate and quartz-crystal picked up. A majority of the beads is made of glass, coloured mostly blue and green, followed by copper-red. Evidently the technicians were engaged in making artificial beryl, ruby etc. At Arikamedu, beryl, ruby, sapphire etc. have not been found. These were exported mostly through the western sea-coasts of India, and also Kāverippaṭṭinam or Puhār, at the mouth of Kaveri, some 60 miles south of Arikamedu.

Diamond Drill

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Gwinnett and Gorelick (1988: 187-93) have studied one of the seven rock crystal artefacts obtained from Arikamedu (dated not later than 300 AD) and proved that this ‘lapidary training piece’ was drilled with a twin diamond drill similar to those in medieval Mantai (AD 700), Sri Lanka and modern Cambay.

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The drill holes were studied with a technique known as functional analysis, in which an impression of the hole was made using a silicone material. This model in effect turned the hole inside out. The impression was then coated with conductive gold and examined in an Amray 1000 Scanning Electron Microscope, and observations recorded on Polaroid film. The details clearly revealed the use of diamond drills in processing hard rock crystal artefacts, at Arikamedu.

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Some of the stone materials used at Arikamedu were sand-stone, granite and steatite. Apart from quartz ring and ivory handle, certain metal objects were found: copper rattle, iron blade, ring and nails and a number of shapeless lumps of iron.

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Two gems, carved with intaglio designs by Graeco-Roman gem-cutters—one bearing the head of Augustus and another untrimmed quartz intaglio representing Cupid and an eagle—suggest the presence of some Western craftsmen on the site. Numerous sherds both of the ‘Arretine’ red-glazed pottery of the first centuries BC-AD. Italy, and of the two-handled jars or amphorae, characteristic of the Mediterranean wine-trade of the period, as well as Roman pottery lamp and the glass bowls, combine to indicate that Arikamedu was one of the regular Western trading stations referred to by the Graeco-Roman and the Tamil writers. Much later, the Chinese celadon wares of the Śung period (AD 960-1279) and Yüan dynasty (AD 1280-1368) found their ways to Arikamedu. Chemical analysis has shown that the greyish green colour of the glaze in the celadon wares is due to ferrous iron, most probably ferrous silicate.

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The ancient Tamil literatures described the trading cities: “the abodes of Yavanas, whose prosperity never waned, in the city of Puhār of Kāvēripaṭṭinam at the mouth of Kaveri”, “the beautifully built ships of the Yavanas, agitating the white foam of Pēriyāru, coming with gold and returning with pepper” (Dikshitar 1939, Pillai) etc.

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