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chap, xv DIAMOND MINE OF RAMMALAKOTA 43
are the only places in the world where the diamond is found.1
The
first of the mines which I visited is situated in the territory of the
King of Bïjâpur in the Province of Carnatic, and the locality is called
Rammalakota,2 situated five days journey from Golkonda,3
and eight or nine from Bïjâpur. The fact that the two Kings of Golkonda
and Bïjâpur were formerly;subject to the Mogul, and were then only
Governors of the Provinces which they acquired by their revolt, caused
it to be said, and to be still said by some people, that the diamonds
come from the Empire of the Great Mogul. It is only about 200 years
since this mine of Rammalakota was discovered, at least so far as I
have been able to ascertain from the people of the country.4
All
round the place where the diamonds are found the soil is sandy, and
full of rocks and jungle, somewhat comparable to the neighbourhood of
Fontainebleau. There are in these rocks many veins, some of half a
finger and some of a whole finger in width ; and the miners have small
irons, crooked at the ends, which they thrust into the veins to draw
from them the sand or earth,5 which they place in vessels ; it is in this earth that they afterwards find the
1 He here forgets Borneo (see p. 359 f. below).
2
Raolconda in the original. The proper form of the name, Rammala* kota,
means in Telugu ' precious stone hill fort '. By means of the route
given on p. 73 this locality has been identified with Rammalakota,
about 20 miles south of Karnul (Kurnool), where excavations are to be
seen to this day (Economic Geology of India, p. 15). The
position is fairly indicated on the small map of India which
accompanies the Revised French edition of Taverniere Travels, published
at Rouen in 1713. The identification both of it and Coulour have foiled
many investigators both in this and the last century. But it is
needless to refer here to the various suggestions as to their
identification, as the question is now fully set at rest by the
identification of the stages on the routes to these mines.
' On
p. 73 the distance is given as being 17 gos or 68 French leagues. The
true distance by the direct route is about 120 English miles.
4 This evidence for the antiquity of the mine is of but little value, and cannot be relied on.
*
This description and what follows indicate that the mining was carried
on in the rock, not in detrital beds. It is, indeed, now known that the
matrix at Rammalakota is an old pebble conglomerate belonging to the '
Karnül ' series.
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