42 V. Ball— On the Diamond Mines [No. 1, 



person whom Tavernier found living in tents on a rising ground only live 

 years later. 



I have reason to believe* that the late Mr. Blochmann was somewhat 

 perplexed by the statement in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri that the presence of 

 diamonds was indicated at particular spots by the hovering (?) over them of 

 insects called Jhinga. Might not this term Jhinga have been a technical 

 one meaning the same small pebbles which Tavernier calls ' thunder stones' 

 and by the occurrence or absence of which, the skilful miners, he says, 

 knew whether the sand contained diamonds or not. They are believed to 

 have been small spherical masses of iron ore. 



IV. — Beiragaeh — mentioned in the Ain i AJcbari identical with Wai- 

 ragurh in the Ghanda District G. P. Lat. 20° 26'. Long. 80° 10'. 



In the Ain i Akbarif which was written towards the close of the 16th 

 century it is stated that there is a diamond mine at Beiragurli which had 

 been conquered lately by Bubjeo otherwise called Chanda who was the 

 zemindar of an ancient city in Subah Berar called Kullem. 



An earlier notice of the locality occurs in Ferishta's History^ from 

 which we learn that the diamond mines at Kullem in Gondwara, where 

 stood many temples, were taken possession of in the year 1425 by Ahmed 

 Shah Wali Bhamuni. 



Again in the ' Brhat Sanhita,' in the chapter on Trying of Diamonds, 

 the peculiarities of stones from the following localities are described. 

 Vena river, Kocala, Surashtra, Supara, Himalya, Matanga, Kalinga 

 Pundra. The second of these is I find from Genl. Cunningham's Ancient 

 Geography probably Berar with Chanda for its capital town. Possibly, 

 however, it here indicates quite a different place, namely, the modern 

 Chicacole on the East Coast which might very possibly have been a mart 

 for the sale of diamonds ; but the Vena river is believed to have been the 

 Weingunga. 



It is needless to enumerate the various suggestions as to the identity 

 of Beiragurh by Kennell, Karl Bitter and others. It has now been 

 clearly established that the ancient Kullem was identical with the modern 

 Chanda and that Beiragurh is to-day represented on the maps by Waira- 

 gurh on the Sath river a tributary of the Kophraguree which is itself a 

 tributary of the Weingunga. 



The exact position of the town is Lat. 20° 26' and Long. 80° 10'. On 

 the opposite bank of the river the map shews a town called Hirapur. 

 The existence of ancient excavations long since deserted and which are 

 locally asserted to have been made for diamonds is attested to by Messrs. 



* Vide J. A. S. B. XL, pt. I p. 114, note. 



f Gladwin's Translation, London, 1800, Vol. II, p. 58. 



% Ed. J. Briggs, London, 1819, Vol. II, p. 406. 



