4.8. Chalcedony Group of Gems

[Full title: Item-wise Discussion on Gems with Decreasing Hardness; (8): Chalcedony Group of Gems]

Before we narrate the Sanskrit nomenclatures, let us briefly mention the modern scientific definitions of the chalcedony group Common chalcedony is hydrated silica of faint unifom colour, low hardness (6), low specific gravity (2.60), somewhat porous and consisting of very thin layers of hydrated and cryptocrystalline silica, when such layers are prominent and concentric

VII-42 agate or wavy, the material is known as agate. When the bands are plain, parallel and alternately light and dark, the variety is called onyx. If the colour of chalcedony is uniformily red, it is called carnelian; sard is yellowish-red or brown. Yellowish colour is due to hydrated ferric oxide, and the red due to dehydrat ferric oxide. Iron-containing light yellow chalcedony, agate or sard, when exposed to sun or heat, loses water from the hydrated ferric oxide, and gets converted into red carnelian. technique must have been practised in the Indian quarries of agate and carnelian over several millennia. This Uniformly dark green chalcedony is plasma, and when spotter with red, it is known as heliotrope, or blood-stone. come to the Sanskrit literatures on the subject. # Now let us Tagore (1879:510-511) has quoted a Sanskrit text describing gandhasasya which is 'red dashed with white, white dashed with red or perfectly red' and could be agate-carnelian in different stages of ripening. Finda is reddish, pale-red or green, andis remarkabl hard. Tagore added in the foot-note (p. 511) that 'the rich of India make pestles and mortars out of this stone, for pulverising medicinal pills'. The material was most likely agate, which was named during the Muslim period of the Indian history as akik. Lohitaksa in AS. 2.11.35, rajamani in BS. 80.4 and zajemay in Manimala 442 could have meant ferruginous jasper or carnelian. We

VII-43 have already said that iyotirasaka in AS. 2.11.35 and BS. 80.5, and muktajyotirasa in Manimala 441 could mean rock crystal and its ray- - focussing lens. An alternative suggestion is that these tems could mean light camelian or agate, reddening on exposure to the warmth of the sun-rays. Finot (1896:55) has equated rudhi raksa (rudhirakhya in BS. 80.4) mentioned by Buddhabhatta with cornaline (French) or camelian, and we think this correlation is justifiable. Buddhabhatta's description is as follows: narmadayam cinadibhumisu indragopaka nibham prakata prilu samana deham rudhiraksa mukhyam (Ratna-pariksha 243-245) 'Ruchiraksa (red-eyed) gem is avaibale on the Namada valley in China etc. It is like indrogopa or cochineal insect (honey-coloured) and pilu, the ripe berry of salvadora persica which is said to be dark red. Buddhabhatta has also alluded to the occasional greenish and bluish shades of rudhiraksa, which we are unable to explain. In Rayanaparikkha, Pheru mentioned that in the 13 th-14 th century A.D., India was importing from Yemen some low-price akik or carnelian which had the colour of pilu (ripe berry, Salvadora persica) yamanadese akika laghumulya pilusamaramgam (Rayanaparikkha 104) Aqiq or akik is loosely translated as agate, but the material from Yemen is certainly cornelian or carnelian of deep red hue, which belongs to the agate family as we have explained earlier (Samma, 1984:71).

VII-44 Sard and carnelian have always been popular in the ancient world. The name 'sard' was derived from the Arabic serad meaning yellow. 'Carbelian' was derived from comeus (raw flesh) or the French cornaline (the cornel cherry), which explains the often-used spelling cornelian. Carnelian was extremely popular with the Greeks and used in cameos by the Graeco-Romans, Mansur divided the carnelian into seven classes. Ben But no country in the ancient world adored carnelian as much as India, which mined, processed, used and exported this gem mineral for three to four millennia since the pre-Harappan era. India has ever been famous for the quarries of carnelian and agate (from which carnelian is made by simple heating) situated (a) in the neighbourhood of Ratanpur, on the lower Namada river, in the (fomer) state of Rajpipla, (b) in the country north of Rajkot, in the Kathiawar peninsula, and (c) in the Rajmahal hills in the east where the Ganges bends. The lapidaries in Broach, Cambay, and Jabalpur, using materials of the above areas, such as camelian, agate, moss-agate, heliotrope or blood-stone, have been world- - famous. There are evidences that the inhabitants of ancient India were familiar with onyx and moss agate. Cox, as we have explained, is agate with plain and parallel bands, alterately dark and lightcoloured. Buddhabhatta provided an incomplete description of the gem-mineral sesa (Ratna-pariksha 175-178) which occurred with emerald, and was

VII-45 said to be striped white and green alternately. Finot equated sesa with onyx. Manimala provided another name palanka for onyx, and a Sanskrit text: krsna harillohita subhrarekha vyaptasca palamkam bhamguram tat 'Palanka or onyx is brittle and has black, green, red or white lines or bands' (Tagore, 1879: 510-511). Onyx was widely mentioned in the Greek and Hebrew literature, the name coming from a Greek word denoting 'a nail'. A Greek mythological story narrated that Cupid, with the sharp point of his arrow, cut the nails of the sleeping Venus, which fell into the Indus, and became metamorphosed into onyx. This stroy suggests that onyx was widely mined and processed in India, and then exported to Greece and other countries. In fact, the materials onyx and sardonyx were widely used for jewelry purposes, for signet. rings and like agate and camelian, for making cups, vases, sword, handles etc. Mocha-stone, also known as dendritic or moss agate is a white or grey chalcedony, showing brown, red or black dendritic markings resembling trees and plants. These have been formed by the percolation of a solution containing iron or manganese through fine cracks of the stone, and the subsequent deposition of the colouring matter originally held in solution. The brown and red markings are caused by oxides of iron, and the black by oxide of Mocha-stone came from the neighbourhood of Mocha in Arbia, hence the name. Mocha could also be a corruption of moschas manganese.

VII-46 or moss-stone. It has been principally obtained from several places in India such as the Deccan traps, Rajkot, Kathiawar peninsula, the beds of Godavari, Narmada, and Jamuna etc. Tagore (1879: 512-513) has quoted a Sanskrit text which says that 'a gem coloured like moss or onion, and freckled like the branched fibrous root of a tree, is called a ganja or mocha-stone: saivala judrapriya (palandu ) tulyarupam gamjam siphavat ciracinayukta Plasma is dark leek-green or apple-green chalcedony, the colour arising due to intimate and uniform inclusions of green- -earth, a chloriticor micaceous substance in the matrix of hydrated silica. Heliotrope (Greek equivalent of sun-turning) or blood-stone is plasma streaked with fine blood-red spots, A famous sculpture executed in heliotrope, preserved in the National Library at Paris, represents the scourging of Christ, the red marks of the heliotrope representing drops of blood on the raiment. matter of fact, there is a post-Christian tradition that Christ's blood fell on dark-green plasma, and thus arose heliotrope. Plasma and heliotrope were mined extensively As a from the Indian sources. Plasma occur in the volcanic rocks of the Deccan, specially south of the Bhima river, as pebbles around the rivers of Krishna, Godavari etc. Heliotrope has been available in the district north of Rajkot, west of Cambay, around Pune and the Rajmahal hills on the Ganges, along with agate, carnelian and plasma all these materials having been used in rings, pins, brooches, and similar ornaments.

VII-47 Tagore (1879: 512-513) has quoted a Sanskrit text in which jyotirasa has been described as a 'dark blue, hard and beautiful gem marked with red (blood) spots'; jyotirasam mecakam agravinduvyaptam drdam sundara kantiyuktam Mecaka is dark blue (green also?) and asra means blood. Jyotirasa in this passage, was rightly equated by Tagore as blood-stone or heliotrope. It should also be noted that Arthasastra mentioned jyotirasaka (AS. 2.11.35) and Brhatsamhita mentioned jyoti rasa (BS. 80.5. ) without explaining what these materials were, and we have taken the liberty of suggesting that in different contexts these could have meant lens-grade rock crystal or agate-camelian complex. Lohitaksa and jyotirasaka in AS 2.11.35 could mean either carnelian or heliotrope (as suggested by Tagore).