Nine Pearls
Encyclopedia
The Nine Pearl
s, sometimes known as the Nava Moti, are a group of sacred gemstone
s described in the Vedic
text known as the Garuda Purana
.
The nine are enumerated as the Oyster
Pearl, Conch
Pearl, Cobra
Pearl, Boar
Pearl, Elephant
Pearl, Bamboo
Pearl, Whale
Pearl, Fish
Pearl, and Cloud
Pearl. These gems were later documented in the treatise Brihat-Samhita ("The Great Compilation") of Varahamihira
, the Indian mathematician.
The first documented contact with these artifacts by the Western world is described in the sole volume of 18th Century scientist Albertus Seba
, entitled Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. In the volume, a large collection of Bezoar
stones and non-oyster pearls were hand-sketched, and the collection of these items were on display in a forum which was the precursor of the modern day museum.
All of these pearls presented on various websites are fake. Many people have fallen prey to such fake claims, and have sold their house, property and gone bankrupt. In fact, on many of these websites the nine pearls as well as other supposedly natural pearl-like artifacts are all made from the same sort of material. Geographically, the pearls are most likely to be found in Indonesia, whether fake or real, where fake pearls are used in much the same way as Christmas decorations. Considered cultural objects that are only meant to mimic the real objects, Indonesians pay very little for the fake pearls, but there are a number of online companies that sell these fake pearls for large sums of money. When it comes to the Cloud Pearl, for example, there are probably less than forty existing worldwide but the high volume sold online suggests there is a seemingly endless supply. The Cloud Pearl and the other eight pearls are truly amazing and beautiful cultural objects that may become unavailable in the very near future based on the disappearance in the environment, except those that are in the possession of museums and collectors.
Today, the original 446-plate volume, part of the greater work Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri Accurata Descriptio, is on permanent exhibition at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
in The Hague
, Netherlands
.
A Conch Pearl is formed rarely within the mantle of any of a wide variety of species within the greater Conch family. The colors vary from white to pink to yellow to a deep reddish tone. The shapes vary greatly, and no two Conch Pearls are alike, making a matching pair an exceedingly difficult (and expensive) proposition. Efforts to culture conch pearls commercially have not been successful to date. The formation is not nacre
ous. It is very difficult to find a round Conch pearl, or any Conch pearl above 2 carats (400 mg).
or Nagamani in Telugu
. There are many myths linked with serpents, especially the Cobra. People believe the hood of an old cobra carries a Pearl that radiates light even in the dark, and bestows luck and great fortune on whoever possesses them. True Cobra stones are rare to find, as the life of cobra in captivity is around 20-30 years. Prof. Hensoldt PhD , who had personally seen the cobra pearl in Sri Lanka under natural conditions and researched on a few pieces he owned. He found the stone to be made of a mineral called Chlorophane, a rare variety of Fluorite
. Cobras are perhaps the only serpents which eat insects and have preference for fire-flies because they can be easily caught at night. Cobras use Chlorophane as decoys to attract the fire-flies. The brightness of Nagamani is measured in inches. In the Black market, it was known that a Nagamani with 32 inches of brightness costs about Rs. 30 crores.
Another type of mythological pearl. Found in the heads of very old boars. A Boar Pearl is typically dark colored, marble-sized, in an uneven but smooth spherical non-porous surface, both opaque and partially translucent.
The elephant pearl is found within the cavity of elephant tusks and is a rare bony growth. It is not an actual pearl. Some varieties of Elephant Pearl are made up of a heavy dark brown substrate, while others are heavy balls, of varying colors, about the size of a Brain Coral
, often with a hemispheric division.
Found in the stomaches of animals that eat bamboo, bamboo pearls are round or oblong, size maximum 1.4" some off-white, rough and dry, resembling camphor crystals in color and texture, others are golden or a flowing green reminiscent of other minerals.
justlike fruit of neem, green and choloform colour. minium size 20mm.longx 6mm round
Whale Pearls are a type of bezoar
found in marine animals. They appear rough-textured in a variegated pattern formation, moderately translucent, and about the size of a small egg. Several types of Whale Pearl have been observed, varying in texture.
Fish Pearls are bezoars found in various fish. They appear rough-textured with variegated pattern formations, moderately translucent, and about the size of a large marble. Several types of Fish Pearl have been observed, varying only in color (i.e. pink, white with a yellow-pink tint and light green with stratification) and texture.
Cloud Pearls are a mythological type of pearl, said to have fallen out of the sky. They are traditionally known as approximating the size and shape of a chicken egg, with a translucent blue color, and having a distinct spiral running from bottom to top of outside surface area.
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
s, sometimes known as the Nava Moti, are a group of sacred gemstone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s described in the Vedic
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
text known as the Garuda Purana
Garuda Purana
Garuda Purana is one of the Puranas which are part of the Hindu body of texts known as smriti. It is a Vaishnava Purana and its first part contains a dialog between Vishnu and Garuda, the King of Birds...
.
The nine are enumerated as the Oyster
Oyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
Pearl, Conch
Conch
A conch is a common name which is applied to a number of different species of medium-sized to large sea snails or their shells, generally those which are large and have a high spire and a siphonal canal....
Pearl, Cobra
Cobra
Cobra is a venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. However, not all snakes commonly referred to as cobras are of the same genus, or even of the same family. The name is short for cobra capo or capa Snake, which is Portuguese for "snake with hood", or "hood-snake"...
Pearl, Boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
Pearl, Elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
Pearl, Bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
Pearl, Whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
Pearl, Fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
Pearl, and Cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
Pearl. These gems were later documented in the treatise Brihat-Samhita ("The Great Compilation") of Varahamihira
Varahamihira
Varāhamihira , also called Varaha or Mihira, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain...
, the Indian mathematician.
The first documented contact with these artifacts by the Western world is described in the sole volume of 18th Century scientist Albertus Seba
Albertus Seba
Albertus Seba was a Dutch pharmacist, zoologist and collector.-Career:Born in East-Frisia, Seba moved to Amsterdam as an apprentice and opened around 1700 a pharmacy near the harbour. Seba asked sailors and ship surgeons to bring exotic plants and animal products he could use for preparing drugs...
, entitled Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. In the volume, a large collection of Bezoar
Bezoar
A bezoar is a mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system , though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system....
stones and non-oyster pearls were hand-sketched, and the collection of these items were on display in a forum which was the precursor of the modern day museum.
All of these pearls presented on various websites are fake. Many people have fallen prey to such fake claims, and have sold their house, property and gone bankrupt. In fact, on many of these websites the nine pearls as well as other supposedly natural pearl-like artifacts are all made from the same sort of material. Geographically, the pearls are most likely to be found in Indonesia, whether fake or real, where fake pearls are used in much the same way as Christmas decorations. Considered cultural objects that are only meant to mimic the real objects, Indonesians pay very little for the fake pearls, but there are a number of online companies that sell these fake pearls for large sums of money. When it comes to the Cloud Pearl, for example, there are probably less than forty existing worldwide but the high volume sold online suggests there is a seemingly endless supply. The Cloud Pearl and the other eight pearls are truly amazing and beautiful cultural objects that may become unavailable in the very near future based on the disappearance in the environment, except those that are in the possession of museums and collectors.
Today, the original 446-plate volume, part of the greater work Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri Accurata Descriptio, is on permanent exhibition at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Koninklijke Bibliotheek can stand for:* Royal Library of Belgium, the national library in Brussels, in Belgium.* National Library of the Netherlands in The Hague, in the Netherlands....
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
Conch Pearl
Nacre
Nacre , also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up pearls. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent....
ous. It is very difficult to find a round Conch pearl, or any Conch pearl above 2 carats (400 mg).
Cobra Pearl
The cobra pearl is a mythological type of pearl. They are obtained from the hood of cobras over the age of 100. Cobra pearls are typically egg-shaped and translucent, transparent, or semi-translucent; roughly 2 cm length, 2 cm diameter and weighing about 5 grams, appearing in a range of colors (golden, green, red, blue, pink, white, black). They are supposed to be slightly radiant. It may also be called NaagMani in HindiHindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
or Nagamani in Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
. There are many myths linked with serpents, especially the Cobra. People believe the hood of an old cobra carries a Pearl that radiates light even in the dark, and bestows luck and great fortune on whoever possesses them. True Cobra stones are rare to find, as the life of cobra in captivity is around 20-30 years. Prof. Hensoldt PhD , who had personally seen the cobra pearl in Sri Lanka under natural conditions and researched on a few pieces he owned. He found the stone to be made of a mineral called Chlorophane, a rare variety of Fluorite
Fluorite
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It is an isometric mineral with a cubic habit, though octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon...
. Cobras are perhaps the only serpents which eat insects and have preference for fire-flies because they can be easily caught at night. Cobras use Chlorophane as decoys to attract the fire-flies. The brightness of Nagamani is measured in inches. In the Black market, it was known that a Nagamani with 32 inches of brightness costs about Rs. 30 crores.
Boar Pearl
Elephant Pearl
Brain coral
Brain coral is a common name given to corals in the family Faviidae so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain...
, often with a hemispheric division.
Bamboo Pearl
justlike fruit of neem, green and choloform colour. minium size 20mm.longx 6mm round
Whale Pearl
Bezoar
A bezoar is a mass found trapped in the gastrointestinal system , though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system....
found in marine animals. They appear rough-textured in a variegated pattern formation, moderately translucent, and about the size of a small egg. Several types of Whale Pearl have been observed, varying in texture.
Fish Pearl
Cloud Pearl