150 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



the occurrence of diamonds, and this river is therefore often considered to be the one down 

 which the diamonds were transported into the Mahanadi. The whole diamond-bearing 

 stretch of the Mahanadi is about twenty-eight miles long, being limited eastwards by a bend 

 in the river at Sonpur. 



One of the most important points on the Mahanadi appears to have been Hira Khund, 

 a name which signifies diamond mine ; this is an island about four miles long, which lies 

 near the village of Jhunan and divides the river into two branches. Every year about the 

 end of March or later, that is, in the dry season when the river is very low, people flocked 

 in thousands to this place to search for diamonds. The branch of the river on the north 

 side of the island was dammed up, and the diamond-bearing sands and gravels of the 

 river-bed dug out and washed for diamonds by the women. The southern branch of the 

 river was never worked for diamonds, although in the opinion of some experienced persons, 

 they were there to be found, possibly in greater numbers than in the north branch. The 

 damming-up of the south branch would, however, present greater difficulty since the volume 

 of water here is greater and the current stronger than in the north branch. 



Diamonds are found near Sambalpur in a tough, reddish mud containing sand and 

 gravel. This material is probably the weathered product of the rocks of the Barapahar hills 

 brought down by the rivers which rise there. The solid rock of this region is not, as far as 

 is known, worked for diamonds, although it is very similar to. the rocks which in all parts of 

 southern India yield the precious stone. A certain number of diamonds are found in the 

 small streams which rise in this neighbourhood, near Raigarh, Jushpur, and Gangpur. 



Large stones are said to have been found in the Mahanadi with some frequency. The 

 largest was found at the island of Hira Khund in 1809 ; it weighed 210'6 carats, but ranked 

 only as a stone of the third water, and its subsequent history is unknown. Generally 

 speaking the stones found here were very good in quality, the diamonds of the Mahanadi 

 and of Chutia Nagpur ranking amongst the finest and purest of Indian stones. In the 

 Mahanadi, diamonds are associated with pebbles of beryl, topaz, garnet, carnelian, amethyst, 

 and rock-crystal ; these minerals, however, have probably been derived from the granite 

 and gneiss through which the river flows and not from the mother-rock of the diamond. 

 The Mahanadi yields also a fair amount of gold, which is separated from the river sands and 

 gravels by washing at the same time as are the diamonds. 



At the present day, diamonds are found in. this district only occasionally ; systematic 

 work was carried on down to about the year 1850, when, owing to the poorness of the yield, 

 it was discontinued. 



The mines of Wairagarh, in the Chanda district of the Central Provinces, may be 

 conveniently described with this group. They are about eighty miles south-east of Nagpur, 

 very ancient, and identical with those mentioned by Tavernier under the name Beiragarh ; 

 their identity with those of Vena (Wainganga) is uncertain. The remains of these mines 

 are still to be seen on the Sath river, a tributary of the Kophraguri, itself a tributary of the 

 Wainganga. The mines were formerly rich, but have been abandoned since 1827. The 

 stones lie in a red or yellow, sandy, laterite-like earth, but the rock from which this alluvial 

 material was originally derived is unknown. According to Professor V. Ball, this diamond- 

 bearing stratum has a far wider distribution than is generally supposed, and will perhaps at 

 some future time become of importance. 



To the north of the Sambalpur district, in the Chutia Nagpur (the ancient Kokrah) 

 division of Bengal, diamond mines were formerly worked. These mines are said to have 

 yielded in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries many large and fine stones, which are 

 stated to have been obtained from one of the rivers of the district. The identity of this 



