Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c43.s4.2

v2.c43.s4.2

Looking from a late twentieth century viewpoint it is quite obvious that modern concepts on elements, molecules, physical properties etc. related to minerals were not yet known to the ancient gemmologists. As we would notice later, the concept of *sattva* or metal inherent in an ore was evolved in the *Rasaśāstra* texts, but this did not amount to conceptualisation of elements and chemical compounds in the modern sense. Gems were classified according to colour which was noted to be misleading in many cases, and hence the second property namely relative hardness was noted and utilised for the identification of specific gem minerals. In this chapter we have classified the gems according to hardness and discussed the same in that order of decreasing hardness, from diamond to pearl.