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| Delhi purple. twitter.com |
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| Delhi purple.eastcoastdaily.in |
India is home to countless famous diamonds and gemstones and for reasons beyond our comprehension, a large number of them particularly diamonds are linked to some kind of curse or misfortune. Surprisingly, many of the mysteries associated with diamonds and gemstones remain unanswered. No plausible explanation is available. The mystery is more a matter of conjecture than a real one.
Have you ever heard of Delhi Purple Sapphire that is purported to carry curse that caused the owner to experience misfortune and tragic events? Normally, gemstones, unlike diamonds, are not associated with the ebb and flow of misfortune and rather they promote peace of mind and spiritual awakening according to some gemologist cum jewelers. So there is no question of distress or mental agony caused by gemstones. But Delhi Purple Sapphire is a mystic one and has a different tale to tell us . No doubt, this not attractive gemstone gets our attention.
Originally looted from a Hindu temple in North India, an interesting fact is it is a case of mistaken identity. Looted from a Hindu temple in northern India this precious stone, in reality, is not a sapphire but actually an amethyst.
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| Crystalline amethyst learnreligions.com |
Above image: Amethyst in crystalline form It is a semiprecious stone, a purple variety of quartz (SiO2) and its violet color is due to irradiation, impurities of iron and some other transition metals, and trace elements. There are various shades of purple, from light lavender to deep violet. According to healers, this stone is a valuable one and has unique spiritual quality. hence people who wear it can reach higher levels of consciousness if deeply involved in meditation. Its hardness (on Mohs' scale) is close to that of quartz hence it is widely used in jewelry making. The presence of impurities like iron causes changes in the shades of color. If you leave your amethyst in sunlight or under other UV sources for too long, its color will fade. And if you expose it to heat, you'll see the color fade as well. Sometimes, instead of gray or clear crystal.
As for Sapphire it is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3). Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or greenish color. What is special about pink sapphires? Unlike other sapphires, the purple ones, that are rarer than other varieties, do not grab much attention because of misconception about them and are poorly appreciated. They change color naturally under different lighting conditions without any heat treatment and this may not be true of blue and pink sapphires...............
It is believed to have been stolen from the Hindu God of rain Indira in a Hindu temple at Cawnpore (Kanpur) during the famous first war of independence in 1857 between the East India company's military and the frustrated Indian soldiers of the English army. The stone was taken to England by a Bengal cavalryman, Colonel W. Ferris. Since his possession of the gemstone Ferris had faced all kinds of problems including dwindling fortune and later his son had also experienced the same both health-wise and finance-wise.
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| 19th century image Haunted palaceblog.wordpress.com |
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| Edward Heron-Allen.www.kojewel.com |
Above image: Edward Heron-Allen , an intellectual and a friend of Oscar Wilde, a famous English Essayist; in the 1890s he suffered a series of misfortune while owing Delhi purple sapphire. Being rationalistic over a short period of time he became superstitious and felt something was amiss with purple sapphire. Might be a curse!...........................
As ill luck would have its way, after a gap of three months purple sapphire surprisingly came back to Allen through a street dealer. Perhaps it could be his karma to face what was in store for him. As the days went by Allen became concerned with the bad effects of the gem upon the birth of his new born baby. When he lent the gemstone to his fiend, a professional singer, misfortune struck the wearer and the singer lost his voice unexpectedly and he could no longer hold the audience in thrall. This incident had further confirmed that Delhi sapphire was carrying curse for some reason. So Allen firmly locked the gemstone in a box with an instruction not to open it until three years after his death. After his demise the box with the stone was donated to the Museum of Natural History in London. Here, in 1972 one Peter Tandy, a Museum Curator uncovered the sapphire and the strange hand-written message enclosed detailing the tales of woe linked to the stone. It ends…” Whoever opens this box, do whatever you want with it. My advice however is to throw it into the sea.” Allen apparently warned the the prospective owner or reader about the curse the famous amethyst had carried presumably due its past association with a Hindu God in an Indian temple. The curator revealed that he had opened the Pandora's box and all was not well with this rare gem and possession of it would mean trouble.
John Whittaker, a member of the Natural History Museum who entrusted with the task of transporting the purple sapphire to the exhibition venues had experienced some kind of misfortune that had a deep impact on his mind. The purported curses of many gems of Indian origin are still wrapped in layers of riddle. Still there are tales of self-destruction, crimes, and many other tragic events associated with historical gemstones looted from the Hindu temples of India.
http://www.hotspotsz.com/The_cursed_Delhi_Purple_Sapphire_%28Article-1557%29.html
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2015/10/cursed-delhi-purple-sapphire-enigma.html
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