The quest for the Hyacinth

Part One: the Great Ruby of Ceylon

When it comes to bibliographical research - especially that concerning Sri Lanka –I am often indebted to my mentor, Dr. H.A.I. Goonetileke. The subject of the article I am about to unfold is a case in point.

Ian Goonetileke, as he is known, needs little introduction to some, but for those not so familiar with his name, let me provide a concise biography of this remarkable man. From 1953 to 1979 Ian distinguished himself at the library of the University of Peradeniya, the last eight years as Chief Librarian. During his time there he established the Ceylon Room and ensured that the Library became one of the finest repositories of knowledge in the country

But of course Ian is not just a librarian par excellence. He is as well an extraordinary scholar. His magnum opus is the 5-volume A Bibliography of Ceylon (1970-1983) - with several volumes yet to be published - which to my mind is one of the most important publications ever to have been written on the island

Of this astounding intellectual enterprise K.M. de Silva has rightly declared: "It places all Sri Lankan scholars in Goonetileke's debt for having made their research forays so much easier than they would be without his bibliography to guide them." And B.H. Farmer: "Altogether it is difficult to fault the Bibliography on the grounds of either content or presentation; and the mind boggles at the industry and patience of the compiler." In addition, Ian has contributed learned forewords, introductions and bibliographies to a number of important publications, such as Navrang's 1993 reprint of Robert Knox's Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon (1681), Neville Weeraratne's 43 Group (1993) and Sir William Ivor Jennings' The Kandy Road (1993). He is also the author of two books documenting visitations to the island - Images of Sri Lanka Through American Eyes (1976) and Lanka their Lanka (1984).

Although nearly 30 years separate us in age, Ian and I have at least one common bond - a passion for books and a relish for the quest that often surrounds their acquisition. Over the past decade or so, we have sustained a correspondence on a kaleidoscope of subjects mostly concerning the literature of the island. I have also been fortunate enough to visit Ian at his house (which is itself a temple to the printed word) and viewed his astounding collection of Sri Lankan art.

In a letter to Ian a few years ago I wrote that a new biography of Rider Haggard - author of King Solomon's Mines (1875) and She (1877) - mentioned his visit to Ceylon in 1913. Furthermore, the jacket of the book featured a painting of Haggard seated rather impiously in front of a Buddha statue. For some reason I thought that Ian had once mentioned a novel by Haggard set in Ceylon, and I asked him to remind me. He replied - rightly questioning the state of my memory - that the book he had mentioned was by another Victorian author, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (who wrote as Q), and that the title was Dead Man's Rock: A Romance (London: Cassell, 1887)

Ian had once seen and studied this book at the British Museum in the 1960s and told me how it concerned the secret of the Great Ruby of Ceylon

For some years I attempted to obtain a copy without success. Recently, however, I was fortunate enough to locate a first edition in London. It arrived by post, and as I peeled away the packaging and revealed the 112-year-old yet immaculate red cloth cover, I knew, with immense satisfaction, that this particular quest was over.

I read Dead Man's Rock in a handful of sessions, mostly enthralled. In a nutshell it is the tale of how the Great Ruby of Ceylon is stolen by an Englishman from its guardian - a Buddhist monk residing at Sri Pada - then hidden on a beach in Cornwall and eventually discovered by means of a complex set of clues. It is a tale with all the right ingredients: treasure, intrigue, treachery, murder and vengeance.

As Dead Man's Rock is unknown to modern readers and unlikely to be reprinted (as well as containing some captivating 19th century descriptions of the island), I make no apology for relating the story in detail

In the very first paragraph of Dead Man's Rock the narrator, Jasper Trenoweth, introduces the subject-matter by modestly hoping that his story "will not altogether lack interest," because "it deals with the last chapter in the adventures of a very remarkable gem-none other, in fact, than the Great Ruby of Ceylon." This Great Ruby is the one alluded to by Marco Polo and a host of other travellers and historians down the ages. The earliest reference to it is by Cosmas Indicopleustes, an Egyptian who retired to the cloister to devote the remainder of his life to historical authorship

One of his last works was an account of Taprobane taken from the reports of Sopater, a Greek trader. Cosmas wrote of the island in 550AD: "It is a great island of the ocean lying in the Indian sea, called Sielendib by the Indians, but Taprobane by the Greeks. The stone, the hyacinth is found in it. It lies beyond the pepper country..

"There are two kings ruling at opposite ends of the island, one of whom possesses the hyacinth, and the other the district in which are the port and emporium. . .

"The temples are numerous, and in one in particular, situated on an eminence, is the great hyacinth, as large as a pine cone, the colour of fire, and flashing from a great distance, especially when catching the beams of the sun - a matchless sight. . ." Although it is generally believed that hyacinth was another name for amethyst in ancient times, there is evidence to suggest that hyacinth was in fact another word for corundum - the mineral containing ruby and sapphire. One of the most important lapidaries of the Middle Ages was Marbodus, abbot and master of the Cathedral School of Anjou from 1067 to 1081AD. In his poem Lapidarium, Marbodus wrote:

Three various kinds the skilled as Hyacinths name,

Varying in colour, and unlike in flame:
One, like pomegranate flowers a fiery blaze;
And one, the yellow citron's hue displays.
One charms with paley blue the gazer's eye
Like the mild tint that decks the northern sky:
A strength'ning power the several kinds convey
And grief and vain suspicions drive away.
Those skilled in jewels chief the Granate Prize,
A rarer gem and flushed with ruby dyes. .

As Richard W. Hughes states in his book Ruby and Sapphire (1996): "This passage contains several points of interest. First, we have the statement that hyacinths may vary in colour : one material but several varieties. This comfortably fits corundum. Second, we see one variety compared to the colour of the pomegranate flower, a reference that appears across many cultures with the ruby. Third, what we do know of ancient corundum suggests that Sri Lanka was probably the major, if not the only, source in early times. Marbodus mentions three colours under the hyacinthus: red (orange?), yellow and sky-blue. It is precisely these colours which are most common in Sri Lanka."

Cosmas' account of a grand ruby affixed to the spire of a dagoba, probably located in the central part of the island, was corroborated a century later by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang. He visited India in the first half of the 7th century AD and wrote that the gem's magnificent light illuminated the whole sky

Marco Polo, in the 13th century, reported that: "The king of Ceylon is reputed to have the grandest ruby that was ever seen, a span in length, the thickness of a man's arm; brilliant beyond description, and without a single flaw. It has the appearance of glowing fire, and its worth cannot be estimated in money. The Grand Kublai Khan sent ambassadors to this monarch to offer for it the value of a city, but he would not part with it for all the treasures of the world, as it was a jewel handed down by his ancestors on the throne.

"Hayton, again in the 13th century, also mentions a special gem: "The king of Celan hath the largest ruby in existence. When his coronation takes place this ruby is placed in his hand and he goes around the city on horseback holding it, and thenceforth all recognise and obey him as their king."

The next Venetian traveller after Marco Polo to describe the island was the Minorite friar Odoric of Portenau, who set out from the Black Sea in 1318 to travel to China and returned after a journey lasting twelve years. Of the king he wrote: "He carrieth in his hands a certain precious stone called a ruby, a good span in length and breadth, so that when he hath the stone in his hands it shows like a flame of fire." Then there was the Dominican missionary, Jourdain Catalini, or "Jordan de Severac". Although he had the title Bishop of Colombo, his see was probably in South India because his work Mirabilia(1323), extols the island only for its gems. Pre-eminent among these were two rubies, one worn by the king, suspended around his neck, and the other, which, when grasped in the hand, could not be covered by the fingers

A few years later Ibn Batuta wrote of the island: "I saw in the possession of Ariya Chakravarti (the Tamil Chief of Puttalam) a ruby dish, as large as the palm of my hand, containing oil of aloes. I expressed my astonishment at this dish, but the Sultan said, "We have objects of the same material larger than that."

A similar gem features in the voyages of Sindbad - the sixth and seventh being to Serendib - contained in the Arabian Nights. The king of Serendib entrusts Sindbad with a "vase carved from a single ruby, six inches high and as thick as a finger", which is a gift for Haroun-al-Rashid, Caliph of Baghdad. Tennent claims that the Sindbad voyages to Serendib are "manifestly based" on the travels of The Two Mahometans, which was written about 851AD. Among other things, this work mentions the rubies found in the island's rivers.

In the late 14th century there appeared the account of the travels of 'Sir John Mandeville'. This told of a ruby possessed by the king of Ceylon "a foot in length and five fingers in girth", which was the especial symbol of sovereignty. Although Mandeville was a fictitious knight, and the book is known to have been based on the writings of Odoric and others, the unknown author does provide further evidence of the general currency of the story of the Great Ruby

The Florentine, Andrea Corsali, writing from Cochin in 1515, once again mentions the existence of a grand brace of ruby: "They tell me that the king of the island possesses two rubies of colour so brilliant and vivid that they look like the flame of fire." "Of the ultimate history of this renowned jewel we have no authentic narrative," writes Sir James Emerson Tennent in his book Ceylon (1869)

But he goes on to quote from a Chinese work called The Mirror of Science, which relates that early in the 14th century, the emperor sent an emissary to the island to purchase a carbuncle of unusual lustre: "This served as the ball on the emperor's cap, and was transmitted to succeeding emperors on their accession as a precious heirloom, and worn on their birthdays and at the grand courts held on the first day of the year. It was upwards of an ounce in weight, and cost 100,000 strings of cash. Every time a levee was held during the darkness of the night, the red lustre filled the place, and it was for this reason known as "The Red Palace-Illuminator."

Richard W. Hughes writes regarding "The Red Palace -Illuminator": "The story is not as mad as it first seems, since some incredibly large corundums have been unearthed in Sri Lanka." He goes on to relate that during his visit to the island in 1986 a stone of "fantastic proportions" had been discovered weighing 40 kg.

It is evident from Ibn Batuta's account that mining for rubies was common in the 13th century: "In the Island of Ceylon rubies are found in all parts. The land is private property, and a man buys a parcel of it and digs for rubies. He finds white stones, deeply cracked, and it is inside these that the rubies are formed. He gives them to the lapidaries who scrape them down until they split away from the ruby stones. Some of them are red, some yellow, and some blue, which they call nailam (saffires)."

-More next week

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