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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1.t5: Garnet Family of Minerals

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s1.t5

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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.

Cites (1)