It should
be remembered as a qualification of all accounts given of the past
history of Indian mines, that there is little absolutely reliable
information. India is commonly regarded as one country. To a certain
extent it is so geographically, but for many centuries it was not only
divided into many principalities, but the boundaries of the divisions
and their rulers were constantly changed. The various States preyed
upon each other, and outside powers at different times swooped down
upon them, looting their treasuries, and establishing foreign
dynasties. Lines of demarcation were obliterated, and with them
diamond mines were in the centuries sometimes lost and forgotten.
Spread over many miles of territory in small patches, as the
dia-mondiferous deposits are; oftentimes concealed by overlying strata
of nondiamond-bearing material, if circumstances forced a cessation of
work, a few generations of interrupted authority and record would be
sufficient to obliterate knowledge of a digging. Eminent and careful
men have sought without success to locate mines which travelers of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mentioned as being renowned in
their day. Ancient workings have been located and traditions hooked to
them which may properly belong to others that in some unknown quarter
await rediscovery. Much of our knowledge of the diamond mines of India
is guess-work with the stamp of authority. All that we can say of the
celebrated diamonds of India is that they are " said to have been
found," in this or that mine. While a dynasty had control of territory
in which there were diamond mines, it seized all the large, valuable
stones, and imposed a tax so rigorous upon the others
