EASTERN HINDOOSTAN. m 



three of his general officers, \vho in the night abandoned their 



poft: the enemy rufhed in, and a dreadful flnnghter enfued; 



the king was taken, and treated with great indignity, and being Tak^en. 



brought before Aurengzebe^ it is even faid that he caufed him 



to be fcourged to extort the difcovery of his treafure : After 



this the kingdom was annexed to the Mogul empire. 



Among the produ6lions of the kingdom of Golconda muft be Diamonds. 

 reckoned that moft pretious of gems the Diamond. The 

 Adamas was certainly the fame with tlie modern diamond. 

 Pliny, lib. xxxvi. c. 4, is the only author that treats difFufely of 

 it : He fays it was very little known, and only to princes, and 

 even to few among them ; that it was the moft valuable article 

 not only among pretious ftones, but among every other pro- 

 duction of the world : Maximum in rebus humanis non folum 

 inter gemmas pretium habet Adamas diu 77on niji regibus et lis 

 admodum paucis cognitus. He fpeaks of fix different kinds, 

 but none but the firft is the diamond of the moderns. It was 

 fuppofed at one time to be found only in gold mines ; but he 

 juflly obferves, that thofe of India were not, and adds with 

 great judgment its relation to a cryftal : from its great hard- 

 nefs, its indomita vis, the Greeks beftowed on it the name Ada- 

 mas ; and Adamantine is an epithet frequent with the Greek 

 and Latin poets. 



Diamonds are found in India chiefly in the provinces of 

 Golconda and Vifiapour, and in that of Bengal. That of Bundel- 

 cund, fouth of the Jumna, Raolconda, in Vifiapour, and Gandi- 

 cotta are famed for their mines, as is Coulour in Golconda ; Ma- 

 banuddy river in QriJJa and Berar, the diitriCt on its banks, are 



faid 



