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Ch. 1: Diamonds of India

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THE
DIAMONDS, COAL AND GOLD
OF INDIA.
—
CHAPTER I.
DIAMONDS.
To say that India has for many years been famous for her diamonds would be to enunciate a truism with which every one is familiar. It is not an easy matter, however, to determine for how long this has been the case, still less so to fix with approximate accuracy any period of the world's history as being that when the precious gem first came to be esteemed in the East. At least 3,400 years have elapsed since the first account of it in the " Mahabaratta" (b.c. 1500) was written—and it may have been known long previous to that. By some it is thought that the Koh-i-nur belonged to King Vikramaditya (b.c. 56), a personage who seems to have been most ubiquitous, if a tithe of all that is said of him could be believed.
I show below, when describing the diamond locali­ties of Sambalpur, that Ptolemy possessed a remark­able amount of information regarding them. Tavernier
p.
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