In Pursuit of Vaiḍūrya in Ancient Indian Literature
Keywords:
vaiḍūrya, Indian Lapidaries, Indian Literature, Sanskrit Technical Literature, GemologyAbstract
Scholars of Indian language and literature have not been unanimous in defining the term “vaiḍūrya” as referring to the exact type of precious stone. This article is an attempt to discover the meaning of “vaiḍūrya” as it appears in ancient Indian literature. Data was collected from Sanskrit lapidaries and other relevant literary works written in Pali and Sanskrit. The study reveals that there is a textual consistency, among ancient Indian texts, particularly in the description of vaiḍūrya regarding its origin story, geographical sources and physical properties. The gemstone identification of vaiḍūrya is problematic because similes used to describe the color of vaiḍūrya in the representative samples show a wide range of analogous natural colors, i.e. green, blue and other related dull colors, which are collectively called “nīla” in Pali and Sanskrit, thus leading to a variety of interpretations. However, this study proposes that the closest equivalent gem to Sanskrit “vaiḍūrya” (or Pali “veḷuriya”) is beryl.
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