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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1.t4: Beryl-group of Minerals

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1.t4

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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.

Cites (4)