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The pair of aged sapphire beads displayed above possesses a compelling narrative woven through time.

Many years ago, these unadulterated sapphire beads were unearthed in proximity to a mine owned by the man who presented them to me. The uniqueness of his mines is rooted in their historical lineage - they were, in fact, repurposed mines, the riches of which had been substantially exhausted around 400 years ago by the treasure hunters of the Grand Moghul of India.

The reign of the grand Indian Moghul emperors marked an unprecedented fervor in the quest for precious stones. The famed peacock throne of Shah Jehan, the visionary behind the iconic Taj Mahal, was an embodiment of such opulence that it outshone the wealth of kings as far as Europe, reducing them to mere paupers in comparison.

Around the 1600s, treasure seekers from the Moghul court obtained the consent of the King of Kandy to mine for precious gems in the area that has been under the custodianship of my friend's family since antiquity. The Kandyan king mandated that the Moslem miners must restore the landscape after their excavation by refilling the mining pits. Additionally, they were obligated to present the choicest jewels as an offering to the revered Hindu deity Kataragama.

The tales of these Moslem gem hunters are still recounted in local folklore, woven with threads of the supernatural. Legend has it that they employed a unique divining tool—a boomerang—to locate the most bountiful places for gem mining. The boomerang was cast across the land in specific patterns, and wherever it landed, the mining commenced. This technique led them to one of the richest gem-bearing sites in Sri Lanka. Laden with their unearthed bounty, the Moghul explorers set sail on six ships back to India.

In accordance with their agreement, they were to offer one of these vessels to the deity Kataragama. However, they attempted to deceive the god by scuttling a ship filled with worthless stones. Infuriated by this dishonesty, Kataragama cast a devastating storm that sank the remaining five ships off the coast of India.

To this day, treasure hunters are engaged in a relentless pursuit to locate these sunken vessels. The sapphire beads displayed above are believed to have been crafted from the remnants of the material left by these ill-fated Mogul miners. They were discovered in the vicinity of the modern-day mine, a silent testament to a tale of ambition, deceit, and divine retribution.
 
 
A 400 year old fake
I went to several jewelers in Kandy after getting this facetted bluish green bead for a few rupies in a small side street shop. They all confirmed that the bead was made of a precious stone called 'spinel'.
 

12 * 7 mm
 

9 * 6 * 2 mm

This rare and beautiful leopard (or tiger) tooth bead amulet could be from both South India or Sri Lanka. Both Hindus and Buddhists are just below the surface of their official belief systems animists, who believe in a spirit world where basically everything, like trees, mountains and waterfalls has a spirit. In Sri Lanka the shamanistic tradition of wearing masks points in the same direction.  A leopard tooth bead, like the one displayed above, will give the owner the power and courage of the big cat. Almost everywhere, from Tibet to Sri Lanka, where beads have magic powers, the bead has to be worn directly in contact with the skin. That is why we often observe a special sheen on old beads.

Old Bohra weapon beads from South India
 

Displayed to the right you can see the same eye design on a stucco head of an ancient Indian Buddhist King, maybe Ashoka.
 
Ancient Turquoise beads
These small turquoise beads displays the attractive, more blue color.