Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.4

v2.c43.4

The second century AD Tamil text Silappadikaram was one of the early literatures which recorded the grandeur of the gem markets in India and the Indo-Roman trade related to gems. During and after the ascendency of the Gupta Period, outstanding Sanskrit literatures on gemmology such as Brhat Samhitā (Br. Sam.), Ratnaparīkṣā (RP), Agastimata (AM) etc. were published. Some Prākṛt literatures like Aṅgavijjā are also worthy of notice. One millennium of Indian studies on gems culminated in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries AD compendium texts such as Rasaratnasamuccaya (RRS), Rayaṇaparikkhā (RYP). In the nineteenth century, S.M. Tagore published Maṇimālā (MM), a beautiful collection of extracts from the earlier Sanskrit texts related to Ratnaśāstra.