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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s4: Gem Minerals

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s4

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Gem Minerals

v2.c41.s4.1

Mani-dhātu or the gem minerals were characterised in the Arthaśāstra as ‘clear, smooth, lustrous, possessed of sound, cold, hard and of a light colour’ (2.12.17). An excellent gem was supposed to have some specific shape-hexagonal, square or round — a flashing colour, a suitable form, and to be clear, smooth, heavy, lustrous, with lustre inside and imparting lustre (2.11.33). With a dull colour and lustre, with grains, with a hole in the bloom, broken, badly bored, and covered with scratches — these were considered to be the blemishes of gems (2.11.34).

v2.c41.s4.2

Pearls or muktā originated in the oyster-shells and conch-shells, and were available in the Tāmraparṇī (Tinnevelly or Tuticorin), Pāṇḍyaka-vāṭa (the Pāṇḍya kingdom), etc. (2.11.2-3). Excellent pearl gems had to be big, round, without a flat surface, lustrous, white, heavy, smooth and perforated at the proper place. The defective ones were lentil-shaped, triangular, tortoise-shaped, semi-spherical, with a layer, coupled, cut up, rough, spotted, gourd-shaped, dark, blue and badly perforated (2.11.4-5).

v2.c41.s4.3

A large variety of pearl-strings to be used for the head, hands, feet and waist were described (2.11.6-27):

v2.c41.s4.4

Śirṣaka (for the head, with one pearl in the centre, the rest small and uniform in size), avaghātaka (a big pearl in the centre with pearls gradually decreasing in size on both sides), indracchanda (necklace of 1008 pearls), māṇavaka (20 pearl string), ratnāvalī (variegated with gold and gems), apavartaka (with gold, gems and pearls at intervals), etc. Ivory was known as danta (3.17.8).

v2.c41.s4.5

Good pravāla or corals (colour of the red lotus) came from Ālakandakam (Ālasandrakan in another manuscript; this is most possibly Alexandria of Egypt) and Vivarna (African coast of the Red Sea and Sicily, Sardinia). The specimens eaten by insects and bulging in the middle were not accepted (2.11.42). It may be noted that red coral (corallium rubrum, family Gorgonidae) of the Mediterranean was as popular to the Indians as white pearl at Rome (Pliny, 32.11). Before the Indo-Roman trade began, India was probably receiving this material through the Arab and Persian traders.

v2.c41.s4.6

Diamond (vajra) was discovered in India of the pre-Christian era. The Arthaśāstra mentioned several sites of origin in Sabhārāṣṭra (Vajragṛha or Wairagadh in Vidarbha), Tajjamārāṣṭra (Orissa), Kāsṭīra (Katni?) and observed that this precious gem could come from the mines, streams or placer deposits (2.11.37-38). Sometimes confused with cat's eye, quartz or some other gem (2.11.39), a good sample of diamond had to be:

v2.c41.s4.7

स्थूलं गुरु प्रहारसहं समकोटिकं
भाजनलेखि तर्कुभ्रामि भ्राजिष्णु च प्रशस्तम्
*sthūlaṃ guru prahārasahaṃ samakoṭikam*
*bhājanalekhi tarkubhrāmi bhrājiṣṇu ca praśastam*
(2.11.40)

v2.c41.s4.8

Big, heavy, capable of bearing blows, i.e., hard, with symmetrical points, (capable of) scratching a vessel, i.e., abrasive, revolving like a spindle (scattering incident light) and brilliantly shining.

v2.c41.s4.9

Such is an excellent (praśasta) sample of diamond; that with points lost, without edges and defective on one side is bad (2.11.41).

v2.c41.s4.10

The author of the Arthaśāstra did not possess our present-day knowledge of elements and their compounds, and thus could not present any sophisticated classification of gem-minerals. His classification was naturally based upon colour and lustre. Such a classification, made in the ancient world, inevitably resulted in considerable confusion since radically different kinds of gems sometimes possess similar colour, and very small quantities of impurities often alter the colour of the gem radically. Thus, the correlations between the ancient and modern nomenclature of gem-minerals are at best tentative. Archaeologically derived samples may however be subjected to modern instrumental tests for confirmation.

v2.c41.s4.11

The Arthaśāstra described certain types of generic names of minerals (2.11.29-32):

v2.c41.s4.12

red saugandhika, green vaidūrya, blue indranila and colourless sphaṭika. Although red saugandhika (2.11.29) was considered to be a basic variety of gems (Bṛ. Saṃ., 82.1) in the early centuries, later it was included under the category of ruby, which is padmarāga (colour of red lotus) or māṇikya (Manasollāsa, 2.475-6).

v2.c41.s4.13

Ruby is the clear red variety of kuruvinda (2.14.48) or corundum (Al₂O₃) containing chromium and a little iron; this is known in India as padmarāga, māṇikya or cuṇi. Balas-ruby is rose-red and was known as bālasūryaka (like the morning sun). This spinel probably came from Badakshan. Rubicelle, which is yellow, was known as karuṇḍaka. Deep red spinel or spinel ruby MgAl₂O₄, identified with saugandhika, actually belongs to a different (spinel) family of minerals. Many other classess of gems could have red colour.

v2.c41.s4.14

The green beryl or vaidūrya (2.11.30) has been earlier mentioned by Pāṇini in his Aṣṭādhyāyī (vide previous chapter). The accounts of the Greek and Roman travellers, as well as the numerous references in the Indian epics, describe in glowing terms the Indians’ abiding fascination for vaidūrya, whose colour has been aptly compared with sea water, green bamboo and parrot’s wing:

v2.c41.s4.15

उदकवर्णो वंशरागः शुकपत्रवर्णः
udakavarṇo vaṃśarāgaḥ śukapatravarṇaḥ
(Arthaśāstra, 2.11.30)

v2.c41.s4.16

Beryl is beryllium aluminium silicate with some substitution of beryllium atoms by Na, Li or Cs. Some substitution by chromium makes it bright green emerald, which has been known in India as marakata or pannā (not mentioned in the Arthaśāstra). Pannā, the famous Indian site of diamond in the Madhya Pradesh, might have yielded some emerald (pannā) in the past. The bluish green variety of beryl is known as aquamarine or pāribhadra, and was mentioned in the Arthaśāstra as uptpalavarṇaḥ (like blue lotus). The yellow variety puṣyarāga (yellow like turmeric) (2.11.30) could correspond either to golden beryl (heliodor) or to puṣparāga, an altogether different kind of mineral viz., topaz, which is aluminium fluorosilicate. Gomedaka (2.11.30) was probably brown zircon or garnet. Another variety, chrysoberyl (BeAl₂O₄) is pale greenish yellow and looks like cat’s eye or mārjārakṣaka which is mentioned in the Arthaśāstra under a different context related to diamonds (2.11.39).

v2.c41.s4.17

Section 2.11.31 describes mahānila (deep blue) indranila (sapphire, which is corundum or Al₂O₃ containing Ti, Fe and Co as impurities), a variation being asteriated or star, sapphire entitled sravanmadhya, bluish gem ‘having rays shooting like flowing water’. Later mahānila was distinguished from indranila in the text Agastimata, as the deep blue variety from Sri Lanka in which ‘the colours of the rainbow sparkle’.

v2.c41.s4.18

Jimutaprabha is probably cloudstone or faint bluish marble. Moonstone or candrakānta, an intergrowth of orthoclase and albite, with pearly opalescent reflection, blue bloom and lovely sheen (available in Sri Lanka), was probably meant in the Arthaśāstra’s nandaka (2.11.31) and śitavṛṣṭi (2.11.32). Sūryakānta, classified with sphaṭika or quartz (2.11.32), is clearly sunstone, which is sodium-calcium feldspar with strong optical interference, reflectivity and play of colour. Was Lord Kṛṣṇa’s famous syamantaka a sample of sūryakānta or vajra (diamond)?

v2.c41.s4.19

The Arthaśāstra also mentioned several subsidiary types of gems named after colour, lustre or place of origin (2.11.35):

v2.c41.s4.20

Vimalaka, white-red, jyotirasaka, white-red (could be agate and carnelian; vimalaka could also be shining pyrite), lohitākṣa, black in the centre and red at the fringe (magnetite; and hematite on the fringe?), sasyaka blue copper sulphate, ahicchatraka from Ahicchatra, śukticūrṇaka powdered or small oyster, kṣīravaka, milk coloured gem or laśuna and śukla pulaka (with horripilation or chatoyancy) which could be cat’s eye variety of chrysoberyl, and so on.

v2.c41.s4.21

At the end was mentioned kācamaṇi, the amorphous gems or artificial gems imitated by colouring glass (2.11.36). The technique of maṇirāga or imparting of colour to produce artifical gems was specifically mentioned (1.18.8; 2.12.1). The Indians were experts in producing artificial gems like beryl, ruby, sapphire, etc., and this has been attested by the Greek and Roman travellers and recorded in Sanskrit literature like the famous play Mṛcchakaṭika.

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