gems, diamond, India, Tavernier, Koh-i-Noor, Indian lapidary, diamond mines, diamond mining, Golconda

HAVING recently endeavoured to correlate the diamond deposits of India, I have been surprised to find what a mass of contradiction exists in both Indian and English literature as to the identity of some of the most famous mines which were worked little more than 700 years ago. In this brief account I propose to give results, not the steps which have led me to them. Tavernier, about the middle of the seventeenth century, visited and described three diamond mines, which were named respectively Raolconda in the Carnatic, Gani, called Coulour by the Persians, and Soumelpour on the Gonel River. Raolconda, Tavernier says, was five days distant from Golconda and eight or nine from Bijapur, and most writers have, with signal unsuccess, tried to fix it accordingly. But elsewhere Tavernier gives nine stages, aggregating probably 189 miles, on the road from Golconda to Raolconda, so that in the first statement the distances were probably transposed. With these new indications we are led to an old town called Rawdukonda, lat. 15° 41′, long. 76° 50′. I have not yet succeeded in obtaining any independent testimony of the existence of diamond mines at this locality, but hope to be able to hear more about it ere long.