Rattibha

#Thread on the legendary #Diamond 💎 Mines and other precious stones of the great #Hindu empire of Vijayanagara as recorded by the Italian merchant & explorer Nicolo Di Conti, in the beginning of 15th century CE.
#history #medieval #india #bharat

Vijayanagara Empire is found in the records of the Nicolo Di Conti as Bizenegalia. The story of the exemplary diamonds mines and the technique followed to mine the diamonds is as follows as per the Italian merchant in Vijayanagra Empire:-

“At fifteen days’ journey beyond Bizenegalia, towards the north, there is a mountain called Albenigaras, surrounded by pools of water which swarm with venomous animals, and the mountain itself is infested with serpents. This mountain produces diamonds.

The ingenuity of man, not having been able to find any mode of approaching the mountain, has, however, discovered a way of getting at the diamonds produced on it.

There is another mountain near it, a little higher. Here, at a certain period of the year, men bring oxen, which they drive to the top, and having cut them into pieces, cast the warm and bleeding fragments upon the summit of the other mountain,..

.. by means of machines which they construct for that purpose.

The diamonds stick to these pieces of flesh. Then come vultures and Eagles flying to the spot, which, seizing the meat for their food, fly away with it to places where they may be safe from the serpents.

To these places the men afterwards come, and collect the diamonds which have fallen from the flesh.

Other stones, which are considered precious, are procured with less difficulty. They dig holes near sandy mountains in places where the stones are found, and continue their excavations until they come to sand mixed with water.

This sand they collect and wash with water, through sieves made for the purpose. The sand passes away through the sieve, and the stones, if any, are left behind: this mode of digging for stones of this description prevails universally.

Great care is exercised by the masters to prevent theft by the workmen or servants,–overseers being appointed, who not only shake the clothes of the operators, but even examine every part of their persons.”

The above narration is only of one diamond mine amongst the numerous mines for precious stones spread across medieval India, out of which some have survived till now...

.. Others were looted, plundered and devastated to such extent by foreign invaders and rulers that there history is now difficult to retrace.
We were truly ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ (the Golden Bird).

Sources and Credit:-
1)THE INDIA THEY SAW (VOL-2) by MEENAKSHI JAIN
2)Major RH, pp. 29-30 from India In The Fifteenth Century Being A Collection of Narratives of Voyages To India, Asian Educational Services, 1992, first published 1858.