Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t3.8

v2.c43.s3.t3.8

It is well-known that Koṅga kingdom once governed the beryl mine of Coimbatore of the Salem district from which beryl gems were supplied to the Romans. Alfred Master has suggested (‘Indo-Aryan and Dravidian’, In *Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies*, Vol. XI, 1943-46, pp. 297-307) that the *veluriya*, the Pāli word was actually a Dravidian word preceding Pāṇini’s *vaidūrya*, and both were the adjectival forms of *Velur* (or modern Belur), which is in the heart of the beryl mines of Coimbatore. The AD 500 inscription of the Gaṅga king Durvinita mentions both Vēḷur as well as the Punnāṭa kingdom described by Ptolemy as ‘Punnāṭa in which is the beryl’. Vēḷur might have been known to Pāṇini as Vidur (‘the far away city’) where the beryl gem from the nearby mountains were processed.