Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c25.s6.16

v1.c25.s6.16

Although we have been unable to be more accurate about the diamond mines in ancient India up to AD 1200, the extent and magnitude of mining till that period has never been in doubt. Ferishtah, the Persian historian, wrote that Mohammad Ghori, one of the early invaders of India (1186), “had left at his death 500 muns (= 400 lbs.) of diamonds; all this enormous treasure he had amassed during the thirty-two years of his Indian sway” (quoted by Bauer, 1968: 153) There are reports of similar treasures of gems including diamond being usurped from the Hindu kings by Alauddin Khilji, Babar etc. indicating the activity of Indian diamond mines before AD 1200. Later reports by Tavarnier etc. merely prove that the mining of diamond continued in the medieval period. The Cuddapah group of mines on the Penner river such as the Condapetta diamond mine (Newbold, 1842) might have started production at a later stage of Indian history. Until the discovery of the Brazilian deposits in 1728, the supply of diamond of the whole world was derived almost entirely from the Indian sources.