corundum, history.1, India.12, gems, Indian lapidary

This is a Hindi translation of Ṭhakkura Pherū’s medieval Ratnaparīkṣā, a treatise on the examination and evaluation of precious stones. Pherū, a Jain scholar and professional assayer active in northern India around the beginning of the fourteenth century, composed the work as a practical account of contemporary gem knowledge. It describes and classifies precious stones and discusses their characteristic qualities, defects, varieties, provenance, and criteria used in judging them, reflecting the commercial as well as traditional Indian approach to gem testing. The work belongs to Pherū’s group of technical treatises dealing with such subjects as metals, assaying, mathematics, and material commodities and is an important source for the history of gemology and the gemstone trade in medieval India. The bibliographic record needs correction: available cataloguing identifies Agar Chand Nahata and Bhanwar Lal Nahata with the Hindi translation, rather than Ratna Pariksha as the author; one bibliographic source records the 1962 Hindi translation as published by Abhay Jain Granthalaya, Bikaner, while another scholarly bibliography lists the Hindi translation as published in Calcutta without a date, so I would not retain “Calcutta: Nahata Brothers; 168 pp.” without checking the title page.