Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s3.t6.24

v2.c43.s3.t6.24

Similar colours of different varieties of gems often confused the ancient gemmologists, who were not equipped with the knowledge of modern science. Pliny for example, tended to call most red gems as carbunculus, and then subdivided this family into categories: male and female. The former was ruby, and the ‘female’ carbunculus matched with hyacinth zircon or hessonite garnet. This confusion probabaly existed in ancient India too. Reddish garnet was known probabaly by more than one name. Apart from pulaka (which indicated cat’s eye also) the other name for garnet was śikhari. Tagore (1879: 514-15 in Maṇimālā) quoted āraktakāyaṃ śikhari and attributed this to reddish or pale-red cinnamon-stone or hessonite variety of garnet.