Pliny: Indian Minerals and Precious Stones

BOOK XXXI. c. 7 (39). There are mountains also formed of native salt, as, for instance, Ormenus, in India, where it is cut out like blocks from a quarry and is continually reproduced, whence a greater revenue accrues to the sovereigns of the country than they derive from gold and pearls.

BOOK XXXII. c. 9, (11). Among the people of India as high a value is set upon coral as in our part of the world is set upon Indian pearls, of which we have said enough in the proper place; for prices are determined by the fashion prevailing in each country . . . . The berries of coral are no less appreciated by the men of India than are Indian pearls by women among us. Their soothsayers and prophets regard coral as the most sacred of amulets ensuring protection against all dangers, so highly do they value it both as an ornament and an object of devotion. C. 6 (21). According to the historians of the expedition of Alexander, oysters were found in the Indian Sea a foot in diameter.

BOOK XXXIII. c. 4 (21). Gold is found in our own part of the world, to say nothing of the gold dug out of the earth in India by ants, and in Scythia by the griffins. C. 13 (57). It is not long since indicum began to be imported, its price being 17 denarii per pound.

BOOK XXXV. c. 6 (25). We have indicum, also a substance imported from India, with the composition of which I am unacquainted. C. 6 (27). Next to this (purpurissum) in importance is indicum. It comes from India and is a slime hick adheres to the scum (spum ) of certain reeds. When broken small it is of a black appearance, but when diluted it exhibits a wondrous combination of purple and deep azure. There is another kind of it which floats in the caldrons in the purple dye houses, and is the scum of the purple dye. Those who adulterate it stain pigeons' dung with genuine indicum or they dye either selinusian or anularian chalk with woad. Indicum is tested by placing it on hot coals, when, if it be genuine, it gives out a fine purple flame, and while smoking, a scent as of sea-water. Hence some think that it has been gathered from rocks near the shore. The price of indicum is twenty sesterces per pound. If used as a medicine, indicum acts as a sedative for ague and other shivering ficates sores.

BOOK XXXVII. c. 1 (g). The East, too, sends us crystals, there being none preferred to the Indian kind. C. 2 (11). Amber is found in India, where it is a preferable substitute for frankincense. Ctesias says that in India is a river, the Hypobarus, and that the meaning of its name is the bearer of all good things--that it flows from the north into the Eastern Ocean near a mountain covered with trees that produce amber (electron), and that these trees are called aphytacor  name signifying luscious sweetness. C. 4 (15). At the present day, for the first time six varieties of the diamond (adamas) are recognised. The Indian diamond is not found embedded in gold, but in a substance akin to crystal, which it equals in transparency and resembles in having six angles and six highly polished equal sides, while it is turbinated to a point at either extremity, just as if two cones should, to our wonder, be conjoined at their bases. As for size, it is as large even as a hazel nut. C. 4 (16). Next in esteem with us (to diamonds) are the pearls of India and Arabia. C. 5 (20). It is thought by many that beryls are of the same, or at all events of a like nature with emeralds. India produces them, and they a rarely found elsewhere . . . . The Indians take a marvellous pleasure in beryls that are distinguished by their great length, and say that these are the only precious stones which they prefer to wear without gold; and hence, after piercing them, they string them upon elephant bristles. It is agreed that those beryls which are of perfect quality should not perforated, but should merely be clasped at their extremities: with circlets of gold. They prefer therefore to cut them in the form of a cylinder rather than to set them as precious stones, since those that are of greatest length are most fashion. Some are of opinion that beryls are naturally angular and that piercing them adds to their splendour in consequence of the removal of the white substance within, while tl reflection of the gold still further heightens their brilliance and their thickness no longer mars their transparency. . . The Indians by colouring crystals have found a way of imitating a variety of precious stones, especially beryls. C. 6 (21). Opals are at once very like and very unlike beryls, and are inferior value to emeralds alone. India, too, is the sole mother of the: precious stones, thus completing her glory as being the great producer of the most costly gems. C. 6 (22). This stone (the opal), on account of its extraordinary beauty, has been called by many authors p der s; such as make a distinct species of it say that it is the gem called by the people of India sangenon. C. 6 (23). By sardonyx, as the name itself implies, was formed meant a sarda with a whiteness in it, like the flesh under the human finger-nail, the white part being transparent like the rest of the stone; and that this was the character of the Indian sardonyx is stated by Ismenias, Demostratus, Zenothemis and Sotacus. The last two give the name of blind sardonyx to all the other stones of this class which are not transparent, and which have now monopolised the name . . . . Zenothemis writes that these stones were not held in esteem by the India and that some were so large that the hilts of swords were made of them. It is well known that in that country they are laid bare to view by the mountain streams, and that in our part of the world they were at the outset prized from the fact that they were almost the only ones among engraved precious stones that do not take away the wax with them from impression. We have in consequence taught the Indians the selves by the force of our example to value these stones, a the lower classes more particularly pierce them and wear them round the neck; and this is now a proof that a sardonyx is of Indian origin. Those of Arabia are distinguished above others by a broad belt of brilliant white which does not glitter in hollow fissures or in the depressions of the stone, but spark in the projections at the surface above an underlying ground intense black. In the stones of India this ground is like wax or cornel in colour, with a belt also of white around it. In some of these stones there is a play of colours as in the rainbow, while the surface is even redder than the shells of the sea-locust. C. 6 (24). Zenothemis says there are numerous varieties of the Indian onyx, the fiery-coloured, the black, the cornel with white veins encircling them like an eye, and in some cases; running across them obliquely. Sotacus mentions that there also an Arabian onyx, which differs from that of India in that the latter exhibits small flames each encircled with one or more belts of white in a different way from the Indian sardonyx, which is speckled but not marked with circular veins like the onyx. According to this writer onyxes are found in Arabia of a black colour with belts of white. Satyrus says that there is an onyx in India of a flesh colour, partly resembling the carbuncle a partly the chrysolite and the amethyst, and he condemns the whole of this class. The real onyx, he points out, has numerous veins of varying colours, along with streaks of a milk-white hue and as these colours harmoniously shade into each other they produce, by their combinations, a tint of a beauty which is inexpressibly charming. C. 7 (25). In the first rank among these precious stones of a brillimzcy like flame is the carbuncle, so called from its resemblance to fire, although it is not fusible in fire; whence these stones are by some called acaustoi. There various kinds of this stone, as the Indian and the Garamantic, the latter being called also the Carchedonian from opulence of Great Carthage. . . . Satyrus says that the Indian carbuncles are not lustrous but mostly of a dirty appearance and always looking as if their lustre had been scorched with violent heat . . . . They admit of being hollowed out; making vessels that can hold even a sextarius. . . . Many writers have asserted that the Indian stones are whiter than the Carchedonian, and if viewed obliquely shine with impaired lustre, while the latter are quite oppositely affected if similarly viewed. C. 7 (28). The Sandastros is found in India a place of that name. It is produced also in Arabia towards south. Its supreme virtue is that, like fire enveloped in a transparent substance, it shines inwardly with starlike scintillations like drops of gold which are always seen in the body of the stone and never on the surface . . . . The Indian stones are said even to dim the sight by reason of their brilliancy. . . . Some prefer the Arabian stones to the Indian, and say that former kind resemble a smoke-coloured chrysolith . . . . Nicander speaks of a stone which he calls Sandaresion . . . which produced in India and takes its name from the place where it is found. It is of the colour of an apple or of green oil, and is regarded as worthless. C. 7 (29). To the same class of flame- coloured stones belongs that known as the lychnis, so called because its lustre is enhanced by lamplight, and when so seen is particularly pleasing. It is found in the neighbourhood of Orthosia and all over Caria and the adjoining localities, but the most approved stones are those which come from India. C. 7 (31). In India three varieties of the Sarda are found: the red Sarda, the one called from its thickness pionia, and a third kind beneath which they place a ground of silver foil. The Indian stones are transparent, those of Arabia more opaque. C. 8. (33). The stone Callaina is of a pale green colour, and is found in the countries that lie behind India, among the Phycari who inhabit Mount Caucasus, the Sac , and the Dah  . . . . A superior kind is found in Carmania. C. 8 (35). India, which produces these stones (various kinds of green stones such as prasius and Chrysoprasus), produces Nilion also, a stone which is inferior in lustre to the chrysoprasus, and even loses what lustre it has when you gaze steadily at it. C. 8 (87). Many countries produce this stone (jasper). The Indian jasper is like the smaragdus in colour. C. 8 (40). We shall now treat of precious stones of a purple colour or of shades of purple. Among these, Indian amethysts hold the foremost place . . . . The Indian kind exhibits in absolute perfection the loveliest shade of purple. It is the greatest ambition of the dyer in purple to attain this hue, for it gleams with a tender radiance which does not dazzle one's eyes like the colours of the carbuncle. Another kind approaches the hyacinth in colour, and this hue the Indians call socon and the stone itself socondion. C. 9 (42). Aethiopia produces hyacinths--also chrysoliths--transparent stones of a golden brilliancy. The stones of India are preferred to these . . . . The best are those which, when placed beside gold, give it a whitish appearance like silver. C. 9 (45). To this class belongs the stone called Melichrysus, so called because it looks like pure honey seen through transparent gold. India produces this stone, which, although it be hard, is brittle, but not displeasing to the eye. The same country produces also Xuthon, a gem worn by the common people there. C. 9 (46). P deros of the finest quality is found India, where it is called Sangenon. C. 9 (47). Next among white stones is Asteria, which holds a chief place among gems from a peculiarity in its nature whereby it holds a light within as it were in the pupil of an eye. This light shifts to and moving within it according as it is inclined. When held against the sun it flings back white rays like those of a star and to this it owes its name. The stones of India are difficult to engrave, and those of Carmania are preferred. C. 9 (48). Similarly white is the stone called Astrion, which closely resembles crystal, and is found in India on the shores Patalene. In the centre of it there shines a star with a refulgence like that of the moon when full. C. 10. The agates found in India possess like marvellous properties with th found elsewhere, besides great and marvellous properties peculiar to themselves, for they exhibit the appearance rivers, groves, beasts of burden . . . and horse trappings. C. 10 (54). Democritus informs us that in India and on Acidane a mountain in Persis, a stone is found called Atiz , of a silver lustre, three fingers in length, of the shape of a lentil, of an agreeable smell, and considered necessary by the Magi when they consecrate a king . . . . Amphidanes, which is also called chrysocolla, is found in India where the ants dig gold. In this stone there are seen pieces of a square figure like gold. Its nature is said to be similar to that of the magnet except that has the additional property of increasing gold. C. 10 (56). Corallis, which is a product of India and Syene, resembles minium (vermilion) in appearance . . . . Chelonia is the eye of the Indian tortoise. C. 10 (60). H matitis is a stone of a blood-red colour . . . . There is another of the same kind called Menui by the Indians, and Xanthos by the Greeks--being of whitish tawny colour. C. 10 (61). Indica retains the name of the country which produces it. It is a stone of a reddish colour, but when rubbed it exudes a liquid of a purple hue. There is another stone of this name which is white and of dusty appearance. Ion is an Indian stone of a violet tint, which, however, is seldom found to shine with a full rich lustre C. 10 (62). Lesbia gl ba, so called from Lesbos, the country in which it is produced, is a stone found also in India. C. 10 (63) Mormorion is a transparent stone from India of a deep black colour and known also as promnion. C. 10 (65). Gems of the name and colour of the Obsian stone are found not only Aethiopia and India, but in Samnium too, and, as some think upon the shores of Spain contiguous to the ocean. C. 10 (70) Zoranisceos is found in the river Indus. It is a gem said to used by the magicians, and beyond this I know nothing more of it. C. 13 (76). The rivers which produce precious stones are the Acesines and the Ganges, and India is of all countries the most prolific of them. C. 13 (77). There is no country so beautiful or which, for the productions of nature, merits so high a place as Italy, the ruler and second parent of the world . . . . Next to Italy, if we except the fabulous regions of India, I, for my part, would rank Spain.

From: McCrindle, J. W. Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature. Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1901, 128-135.