Diamond has served many forms of jewelry superbly, but the smallest form is the one that catches our interest the most -- the diamond ring given in token of love and marriage. The actual proper and recorded rather than purely speculated and know through barely anecdotal means history of this tradition transcends the perception of its creation as marketing hyperbole. The modern solitaire is just the most recent step on a long road from the past.
Rings date back several millennia, but ones given as tokens of love are first noted by the comic Roman poet Plautus in the 2nd century BCE. Wedding rings are known because of interior inscriptions recording the marriage contracts signed in the presence of the Emperor's image.
Writings: The earliest known reference to diamond is a Sanskrit manuscript, the Arthasastra ("The Lesson of Profit") by Kautiliya, a minister to Chandragupta of the Mauryan dynasty in northern India. The work is dated from 320-296 before the Common Era (BCE). The "Ratnapariksa" of Buddha Bhatta is a 6th-century text on gems. The manuscript summarizes Indian knowledge about diamond, which it introduces through an origin myth -- a window into the culture's cosmology and values. Buddha Bhatta describes the hierarchy of diamonds, their powers and virtues, and their distribution among the castes.
Kautiliya states "(a diamond that is) big, heavy, capable of bearing blows, with symmetrical points, capable of scratching (from the inside) a (glass) vessel (filled with water), revolving like a spindle and brilliantly shining is excellent. That (diamond) with points lost, without edges and defective on one side is bad." Indians recognized the qualities of a fine diamond octahedron and valued it.
Archaeology: No diamonds have been found in ancient sites, but holes in ancient beads show diamond's "footprint," cylindrical holes with conspicuous concentric grooves left by a twin-diamond drill. The holes are unlike the marks of any other modern or ancient drilling technique -- a signature of this diamond technology. Beads from sites in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Yemen and Egypt show the marks of diamond drills prior to 700 CE and as early as the 4th century BCE in Yemen.
Rings date back several millennia, but ones given as tokens of love are first noted by the comic Roman poet Plautus in the 2nd century BCE. Wedding rings are known because of interior inscriptions recording the marriage contracts signed in the presence of the Emperor's image.
Writings: The earliest known reference to diamond is a Sanskrit manuscript, the Arthasastra ("The Lesson of Profit") by Kautiliya, a minister to Chandragupta of the Mauryan dynasty in northern India. The work is dated from 320-296 before the Common Era (BCE). The "Ratnapariksa" of Buddha Bhatta is a 6th-century text on gems. The manuscript summarizes Indian knowledge about diamond, which it introduces through an origin myth -- a window into the culture's cosmology and values. Buddha Bhatta describes the hierarchy of diamonds, their powers and virtues, and their distribution among the castes.
Kautiliya states "(a diamond that is) big, heavy, capable of bearing blows, with symmetrical points, capable of scratching (from the inside) a (glass) vessel (filled with water), revolving like a spindle and brilliantly shining is excellent. That (diamond) with points lost, without edges and defective on one side is bad." Indians recognized the qualities of a fine diamond octahedron and valued it.
Archaeology: No diamonds have been found in ancient sites, but holes in ancient beads show diamond's "footprint," cylindrical holes with conspicuous concentric grooves left by a twin-diamond drill. The holes are unlike the marks of any other modern or ancient drilling technique -- a signature of this diamond technology. Beads from sites in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Yemen and Egypt show the marks of diamond drills prior to 700 CE and as early as the 4th century BCE in Yemen.
About the Author:
Breathtaking diamond rings band jewelry awaits you at Eternity Rings Platinum. Shop diamond wedding band today!. Also published at Not Just Round Diamonds Any More: the Emerging Eternity Ring.
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