The Occurrence and Distribution of Diamonds in India. 553 
up some of their earliest and most cherished beliefs, and it will be 
unacceptable to some perhaps to hear that Golconda itself never 
produced diamonds, and that it wasin fact merely the mart where 
diamonds were bought and sold. 
The name originally applied to the capital now represented by 
a deserted fort in the neighbourhood of Hyderabad was extended 
to the surrounding district, and seems to have been used for the 
whole kingdom,* which included many of the diamond localities, 
and in this way the popular belief on the subject arose; but 
Golconda fort, it should be remembered, is many miles distant 
from the nearest of these. 
At the present day there is a totally distinct tract of hilly 
country lying to the north of the Godaveri river, which also bears 
the name Golconda ; whether it at any time formed a portion of 
the ancient kingdom I cannot say, but it is not, I believe, at 
present included in the territories of the Nizam of Hyderabad. 
The districts included in this southern tract in the Madras 
Presidency in which there are or have been diamond mines are the 
following—Kadapah, Karnul, Ellore, and the Karnatie. 
Proceeding northwards, the next locality at which there were 
mines was at Badrachellum on the Godaveri. 
The second great tract occupies a considerable area between the 
Mahanadi and Godaveri rivers. Although diamonds are known 
but from two neighbourhoods within it, still from our present 
knowledge of their geology, to which I shall presently allude, it is 
not improbable that the diamond-bearing strata may have a wide 
range. ‘The two neighbourhoods referred to are Sambalpur with 
the bed of the Mahanadi for many miles above it, and Weiragurh 
or Weiragud eighty miles to the south-east of Nagpur. 
Again, as an outlier to this second tract, there are two or three 
localities within the province of Chutia Nagpur, where diamonds 
are reported to have been found. 
The third great tract is situated in Bandelkhand, near the 
eapital of which, Panna, some of the principal mines are situated ; 
but there are others scattered about in various parts of that 
province or kingdom. 
* “(;oleonda is the most famous of the six independent Moslem kingdoms whicii in 
Ab. 1399 rose on the extinction of the Toghlak (Delhi) dynasty, and it survived till 
1688, when Aurungzebe brought all India under one sceptre.”--Captain Burton. 
Scien. Proc. R.D.S. Vou. m., Pr. vu. 2P2 
