Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t4.22

v2.c43.s3.t4.22

However, the Egyptian emerald had been known in Europe from a very early date. Herodotus mentioned the emerald colum in the temple of Hercules in Tyre ‘emitting a splendid light in night’. Plato mentioned the use of emerald. Aristotle’s disciple Theophrastus wrote that ‘smaragdos assimilates the colour of water into which it is thrown to its own colour’. Caesar and Cleopatra met in a hall of tortoise-shell, studded with emerald and topaz gems, Egypt having mines for both. Emperor Nero used to watch the feats of the gladiators, through an eye-glass of emerald. With the onset of the Indo-Roman trade during the first century BC, the Indians, long used to light-green vaidūrya or beryl gems, started importing and using the intense green-coloured gem of the same family viz., marakata or emerald. Some emerald might have been imported from Turuṣka or Turkey (MM, 357) during the Muslim period. The name tārkṣya stood for emerald (RRS, 4.5); Garuḍa was the son of Tṛkṣa.