1. "Diamond kingdom." It is probably Magadha (now Behar) that is
here thus designated (Jülg.); though it might stand for any part of
Central India: "Diamonds were only found in India of all the kingdoms
of antiquity" (Lassen, iii. 18), and (Lassen i. 240), "in India between
14° and 25°;" a wide range, but the fields are limited in extent and
sparsely scattered. The old world only knew the diamond through the
medium of India. In India itself they were the choicest ornaments of
the kings and of the statues of the gods. They thus became stored up
in great masses in royal and ecclesiastical treasuries; and became
the highest standard of value. The vast quantities of diamonds made
booty of during the Muhammedan invasion borders on the incredible. It
was thus that they first found their way in any quantity to the West
of Europe. Since the discovery of the diamond-fields of Brazil,
they have been little sought for in India. In Sanskrit, they were
called vag'ra, "lightning;" also abhêdja, "infrangible." It would
appear, however, that the Muhammedans were not the first to despoil
the Eastern treasuries, for Pliny (book ix.) tells us that Lollia,
wife of Claudius, was wont to show herself, on all public occasions,
literally covered from head to foot with jewels, which her father,
Marcus Lollius, had taken from the kings of the East, and which were
valued at forty million sesterces. He adds, however, this noteworthy
instance of retribution of rapacity, that he ended by taking his own
life to appease the Emperor's animosity, which he had thereby incurred.
Hiuen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim who visited India about A.D. 640,
particularly mentions that in Maláva and Magadha were chief seats of
learned studies.