Distribution of Pearls and Peart-shell. 37 
In India pearls were known and appreciated many 
centuries before Christ. They are frequently mentioned 
in Indian mythology, their discovery being attributed to 
Krishna, the eighth avatar or incarnation of Vishnu, who 
is said to have searched the ocean for these gems and 
then carried them to India as a wedding gift to his 
daughter Pandaia. The Atharvaveda (at least 500 years 
B.C.), alludes to an amulet made of pearls and pearl-shell 
used for bestowing long life and prosperity upon young 
Brahmanical disciples.” The two great epics of ancient 
India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, also refer to 
pearls, and the former speaks of a necklace of twenty- 
seven of these gems, and refers to pearl drillers accom- 
panying a great military expedition. Ancient Indian 
deities are represented as being adorned with these gems, 
and, according to Varahamihira, the Indian astronomer, 
the statue of the Sun-god, Mithra, wore a crown upon his 
head, and was decked with chatn-work of pearls, and 
earrings also of pearl. Pearls and diamonds served as 
eyes for images of the gods ; they were also employed to 
decorate the interior of Buddha’s tomb, and shone 
upon the beautiful box containing his sacred tooth. 
Distinguished Indian women wore purple draperies orna- 
mented with pearls, and on great public occasions their 
arms were covered with them ; and they even wove them 
into their hair.“ Special esteem seems to have been ac- 
corded to rose coloured pearls, for red pearls (Lohztamuktz ) 
form one of the seven precious objects which it was incum- 
bent to use in the adornment of Buddhistic reliquaries, 
and to distribute at the building of a Dagopa.” 
4° See translation by Maurice Bloomfield in * Hymns of the Atharva- 
veda,’ Oxford, 1897, p. 62. 
46 Von Hessling, op. czt., pp. 1-23 Streeter, of. cz/., pp. 24-25; Iunz 
and Stevenson, of. cz¢., pp. 3-4. 
47 J.ovell, of. czt., p. 97; see also Yule’s “‘ Marco Polo,” ii., p. 203. 
