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In unraveling the history and associations of diamond, we also
need to know the history of the words attached to it: did the
words spoken by the Indians and Greeks signify the same things
they do today, or something very different? "Diamond" comes from
the Greek adamao, meaning "I tame" or "I subdue." The adjective "adamas"
was used to describe the hardest substance known, and eventually
became synonymous with diamond.
The cultures that played a role in bringing the diamond into
prominence are numerous. They are Greek, Indian, Old English,
French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Polish, Japanese, American,
African, Korean, and Chinese.
Small numbers of diamonds began appearing in European regalia and
jewelry in the 13th century, set as an accent point among pearls
in splendid wrought gold. By the 16th century the diamond became
larger and more prominent in response to the development of
diamond faceting which enhances it brilliance and fire, and in the
17th and 18th centuries the diamond presided as the last word in
representing all that was wealth, prestige and power. An act of
Saint Louis (Louis IX of France, 1214-70) that established a
sumptuary law reserving diamonds for the king bespeaks of the
rarity of diamonds and the value conferred on them at that time.
Within 100 years diamonds appeared in royal jewelry of both men
and women, then among the greater European aristocracy.
The earliest diamond-cutting industry is believed to have been in
Venice, a trade capital, starting sometime after 1330. There is no
recorded explanation for the European upsurge in the diamond's
popularity. Nevertheless, the huge import of diamonds during the
17th and 18th centuries is nothing sort of revolutionary. And the
tradition of giving rings in the engagement and marriage ceremony
as tokens of everlasting love has taken the diamond into its
present-day popularity.
This custom of exchanging wedding rings dates back as far as the
comic Roman poet Plautus in the 2nd century BCE. Wedding rings
were then valued because of interior inscriptions recording the
marriage contracts signed in the presence of the Emperor's image.
The custom was continued and mostly Christianized by the 4th
century by St. Augustine. Byzantine wedding rings are thick gold
bands with round or oval bezels depicting the couple face to face,
or receiving Christ's blessing of their union.
Knowledge of diamond and its origin starts in India where it was
first mined. The first known reference to diamond is a Sanskrit
manuscript, the Arthsastra ("The Lesson of Profit") by Kautiliya,
a minister to Chandragupta of the Mauryan dynasty in northern
India. And now over the centuries, the diamond continues to embody
deep human expression of purity, strength, solarity and eternal
love. |
