" ON THE 



DIAMOND MINES OF PANNA 

 . BUNDELKHAND. 



By CAPTAIN JAMES FRANKLIN, 



First Bengal Cavalry, M. A. S. 



^f^''" ' " ' " ' ' (WITH A MAP.) 



T 



The geological position of the matrix of the diamond, being still a ques- 

 tion in the history of that gem, the following notice on the diamond mines 

 of Panna, will not, I trust, be unacceptable. 



Report says, that they were first* discovered in the time of Raja 

 Chitrasal, who ruled at Panna, in the reign of the Emperor Aurangzeb, 



but 



* Their discovery is attributed to a Devotee of the Mehdivi sect, who established his doctrine 

 at Panna, in the time of Raja Chitrasal, or about A. D. 1680-90, I doubt this statement, but I 

 cannot arrive at satisfactory proof of their previous discovery. Mr. Mawe dates the discovery of the 

 mines of Brazil about the same period, and Dr. Heyne has a similar account of some of those 

 of Golconda, but Ta vernier says, that the Mogul diamond was found at Color, not far east of 

 Golconda, A. D. 1550. 



BoETius DE Boot published his treatise " De Lapidibus et Gemmis," A. D. 1609, and 

 points out the diamond mines of India and Malacca — and in fact, it appears, that the diamond has 

 been found in India in all times, since the days of Pliny, and, perhaps, long before. 



