Distribution of Pearh and Pearl-shell. 87 



In India pearls were known and ap[)reciated man)- 

 centuries before Christ. They are frequently mentioned 

 in Indian m\-thology, their discovery beinj^ 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 

 daugliter 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 chain-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 iLoliitaviukti) 

 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.'' 



♦•' See translation by Maurice Bloomfield in " Hymns. .f ilie .Vili.irv.i 

 veda," Oxford, 1897, p. 62. 



*" Von Ilessling, op. ciL, p[). 1-2 ; Slreetor, op. ,1/., up. 24-25 ; Kun/ 

 and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 3-4. 



*■ Lovell. op. cil., p. 97 ; sec :Jso \ule'.s " Marco I'mIc,'' ii.. p. 20J. 



