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Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t11: Two Softer Blue Gems of the Ancient World

Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t11

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Two Softer Blue Gems of the Ancient World

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Turquoise (hardness 6) and Lapis Lazuli (5-1/2) are famous as two relatively soft blue gems. These were widely used in the ancient world, which had not yet invented the techniques to cut and process the harder gems such as blue sapphire (9).

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Turquoise is a hydrous phosphate of aluminium and copper. It may be considered to be an aggregate of orthophosphoric acid molecules hooked with (CuOH) and Al(OH)₂ radicals, the tentative formula being H₅(CuOH) [Al(OH)₂]₆ (PO₄)₄. The sky blue, dark blue or bluish colour is due to copper.

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In the Harappan period, much of the supply of turquoise came from Persia, near Niśāpur in Khorasan. The turquoise mines over there, existing in rocks consisting of porphyritic trachytes, are of great antiquity. The material was always in demand in India and imported, unless for some reason or other, the trade links were snapped. Finot has quoted (1896:138) Agastimata Appendix 38 and Ratnasaṃgraha, 20 (Finot, p. 197) which provide the same description indicating the blue and yellow colour of piroja/perojā or turquoise. The latter references (RS, 20) mentioned that the gem could be mecaka or dark blue. Pherū wrote in Rayaṇaparikkhā about the gems from Persia imported to India in the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries AD: pārasika ratnāni (RYP, 103). These were spinel (lāl), carnelian (akīk) and turquoise (perujjā or perojā). He wrote that blue and clear turquoise occurs in the mines of Niśāpur (Niśāvara) and Al-Moussul (Muvāsīra), and that this is beneficial to the eyes (RYP, 105):

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नील अमलं पेरोजं देशे नीसावरे मुवासीरे उत्पद्यते खनिभ्यः
nīlam amalaṃ perojaṃ deśe nīsāvare muvāsīre utpadyate khanibhyaḥ

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The earlier literatures had also mentioned that turquoise is good for the eyes. The Ratnasaṃgraha had mentioned in addition that turquoise is viṣanāśanam an antidote to poison (RS, 20).

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The turquoise of Niśāpur was considered to be as precious as ruby and sapphire of Sri Lanka and the emerald of Egypt. The name turquoise is the French word for Turkish; the mineral travelled to the West from Persia through Turkey. Tagore (1879: 386-87) quoted a Sanskrit text saying that emerald comes from the sea-coast of Turuṣka (translated as Turkey). The name tārkṣya (in RRS, 4.5-4.6) has been translated as emerald. Possibly there was a confusion between blue turquoise and bluish green emerald. The word turuṣka (used in AM, 287 and GP, 1.71.4 in connection with the source of emerald) means storax or a balsam obtained from the foreign tree of Ligendamber.

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It is surprising that in Rayaṇaparikkhā, Ṭhakkura Pherū mentioned turquoise but not the other famous blue gem, lapis lazuli which used to be imported to India over centuries since the Harappan era. Lapis lazuli (hardness 5-1/2), the richly coloured blue material is a heterogeneous mixture of several minerals:

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*lazurite* 3Na₂Al₂Si₂O₈, 2Na₂S (chief ingredient) alternatively (Ca, Na)₈(Al,Si)₁₂O₂₄ (S, SO₄, Cl)ₓ (polysulphide units) *haüynite* 3Na₂Al₂Si₂O₈, 2CaSO₄ *sodalite* 3Na₂Al₂Si₂O₈, 2NaCl

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It has been conclusively proven that the deep blue colour of lazurite is due to the transition among the orbitals of the 19 outer electrons of the S₃⁻ polysulphide units in the mineral. (Nassau, 1983: 149) Pale blue samples when raised to a dull red-heat, assume fine dark blue colour possibly because a larger proportion of sulphur atoms re-align themselves to form S₃⁻ ions as in artificial ultramarine.

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The largest known lapis lazuli mines are situated in Badakshan in the north-east corner of Afghanistan, in the upper part of the valley of the Kokcha, a tributary on the left bank of the Oxus (36-1/2°N latitude and 70-1/2°E longitude). The anicent mining method involved putting up big fires in the mine, soaking the heated rocks with water and then hammering the loosened and cracked pieces of blue rock.

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Lapis lazuli has been used to make small articles such as bowls, vases, fancy articles of various kinds. The blue colour is often flecked with shining, metallic specks of iron pyrites; Pliny compared such stones with the star-bedecked blue sky. Maṇimālā (MM, 442) described such a sample, as a blue mass flecked with gold: *ānilam svarṇayukta yat tu rājavartam udāhṛtam*.

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The name Lapis Lazuli was most possibly derived from the Persian lazhward, meaning blue colour. In some Sanskrit text, this name was retained:

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लाजवर्तः अल्पशः रक्तः नीलिमामिश्रित प्रभः *lājavartaḥ alpaśaḥ raktaḥ nīlimāmiśrita prabhaḥ* *Lājavarta* is coloured blue slightly reddish. (Agastiyā Ratnaparīkṣā, 93).

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In another text, it was mentioned as *rājavarta*:

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निगौरम् असितम् स्वच्छम् नीलस्वच्छम् समं गुरु शिखिकण्ठदृढ़म् शुद्धम् राजावर्ते गुणा दश *nirgauram asitam svaccham nīlasvaccham samam guru* *śikhikaṇṭhadṛḍham śuddham rājāvarte guṇā daśa* *Rājāvarta* is not white (distinguished from white calcite which may be associated with it — author but blue or dark blue like the neck of a peacock. (*Laghu-Ratnaparīkṣā*, 19)

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*Rasaratnasamuccaya* (RRS) mentioned in its chapter four, that *rājāvarta* has a mixed shade of blue and slight reddish colour, and that it is heavy and smooth. All the Sanskrit texts referring to lapis lazuli mention that it is guru or heavy. Its specific gravity however is actually low (~2.4), much lower than that of blue sapphire (~ 4.1) and on this point, the ancient scholars might have confused one kind with another. RRS further mentioned satvapātana or metal extraction from rājāvarta. We wonder what metal was extracted from this gem. Possibly the author of RRS confused sasyaka, a blue copper mineral, from which copper metal was extracted (RRS, 2.125-133), with rājāvarta.

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Before we pass on to coral and pearl, the softest gem minerals, we may briefly mention a few minor gem minerals such as vimalaka or the gem variety of pyrite. Pyrite FeS₂ has metallic lustre, specific gravity 5.0 and hardness 6-1/2. It is pale brass yellow, and occurs in striated cubic and pyritohedral (fourteen surfaces) forms. On account of its brilliant lustre and pretty colour, it was much esteemed and used in brooches, bracelets, as recently as in the eighteenth century, specially in France, till its use was given up. It was mentioned as vimalaka in Arthaśāstra (AS, 2.11.35, and Bṛhatsaṃhitā (Bṛ. Saṃ., 80.4).

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Rasaratnasamuccaya (RRS) mentioned vimala or pyrite occurring in several kinds: tāra vimala (silver-like iron pyrite or vimalaka), hema vimala (golden chalcopyrite) and kāṃsya vimala or arsenopyrite (RRS, 2.95). These were mentioned as rasas or ores from which metal could be extracted. Only the first one, namely tāra vimala or iron pyrite had been used as a minor gem in India and that too well before the thirteenth century AD.

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Sasyaka or blue copper mineral (covellite, bornite or copper sulphate crystal?) was mentioned as a minor gem (AS, 2.11.35 and Bṛ. Saṃ., 80.5) in the early centuries, but not counted as a gem during the later years. Similarly añjanamūlaka, the pigment grade dark blue mineral (carrolite, a cobalt compound? or an antimony compound?) was mentioned in AS, 2.11.35, but must have lost its reputation as a gem in the post-Christian era. Conch or śankhahad been widely used in India throughout the ages, even in Pre-Harappan times. Bṛ. Saṃ., 80.4 mentioned this as a gem, but not other gemmologist mentioned it, although the material has always been used for other purposes, such as making bangles.

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A very striking fact is that Arthaśāstra, otherwise more or less complete in its list of gems, does not mention marakata or emerald which became very popular in the sub-continent during the post-Christian era. This also proves the antiquity of the said text, which is probably the oldest to provide a list of gem-minerals used in India.

Linked texts (4)