Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t2.11

v2.c43.s3.t2.11

The *Ratnaśāstra* texts described *indranīla* occurring in different shades of blue, and we know today that sapphire can be deep-blue, the most admired tone being ‘intense cornflower-blue’. Sapphire could be whitish blue leuco-sapphire or *somānaka* (*RP*, 219; *GP*, 1.74.3) or possess a yellowish tinge (‘Oriental topaz’). We have already mentioned that sapphire is slightly harder than ruby (Bauer, 1968: 282). The word ‘sapphire’ came from the old Arabic (also Hebrew) ‘sapeer’ meaning ‘to scratch’, something which is hard. Its hardness enabled it to be distinguished from less hard blue gems like aquamarine, lapis lazuli, and blue-coloured materials like quartz, glass or marble (*GP*, 1.72.14). Garuda Purāṇa mentioned various defects (grain boundary, holes etc.) of some sapphire samples, their occasional contamination with mica and moderate thermal resistance (*GP*, 1.72.6 and 11). The Indians received the best variety of sapphire from the Padmākara province of Sri Lanka (*MM*, 397), which must have been around the modern Ratnapura on the Kaluganga.