INDIAN DIAMONDS
Most
of the Indian mines, at that time, were located in the Kingdom of
Golconda, which has ceased to exist. Rough diamonds were sent to the
capital city of Golconda (now in ruins) to be cut.
In
India, where diamonds were first found and where more diamonds are
bought at retail today than in any other nation except the United
States, the art of polishing the diamonds' natural faces by rubbing
them together was practiced as early as the sixteenth century, at
Golconda, the market place for the mining country. Spreading into
Europe in the wake of the medieval jewel trade, this simple art grew
more and more complicated as the taste of Europe's kings (who bought
most of the diamonds) grew more and more artificial. Because Holland
was free of the religious oppressions that stifled most European
commerce, the trade of cutting diamonds settled in Amsterdam around
1600 and flourished there for the next three centuries.
The
mines of Golconda and Kurnoor (India) were described as early as 1677
in the twelfth volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society.
The
Panna fields are supposed to be among the oldest of the Indian diamond
mines. As far as is known, the district has never yielded as fine
stones as the others but it has been prolific, and operations have been
carried on with more or less vigor constantly to the early part of the
twentieth century. The entire output of India today is insignificant.
The production of India for the year 1905 was 172.4 carats and for
1906, 305.9 carats, the increase being chiefly from the Panna mines.
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