Paddar, Soomjam sapphires in hills of Paddar, Soomjam in Doda
From: Albert Ramsay 1934
In India my eyes have been dazzled by such jewels as never have been seen in the Western world. When I was last in the Srinagar palace of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir thirty trays were brought before me, and if I were to say that any one tray, sent to market, would fetch a million dollars, I would be giving only a faint impression of the astonishing wealth and beauty of those treasures of an Indian gentleman.
A handsome man is Colonel His Highness Maharaja Sir Hari Singh. In the afternoon he had shown me his sapphires and told me the story of how they were found.
It seemed that in the old days of band of men with beards dyed red found some blue stones exposed by a landslide in the hills of Paddar, Soomjam in Doda. These men had come from Afghanistan, part of a mule caravan on its way to Delhi. The stones, as curiosities, were put away in the bags on one of the mules, and then, in Delhi, they were traded for salt.
Thereafter they were sold to someone who recognized them to be rough sapphires: and they were resold and resold and resold, until finally, in Calcutta, they brought in rupees a price which was equal to $400,000. The news of this transaction got back to the maharaja of that time, who discovered that the sapphires had been picked up in his own Paddar, Soomjam sapphire hills. In great wrath he went to Calcutta and demanded them.
Every single transaction in the long train had to be undone. The man who had sold the sapphires gave back the $400,000, and so it went through many towns, until, at Delhi, a merchant received back a few bags of salt. Today, I should think, those Paddar, Soomjam sapphires are worth $3,000,000. One of them is as large as an eggplant.
For one of the smaller fragments I offered His Highness $25,000. He just laughed at me; he does not want to part with any object in his beloved collection, but, oh how I should like to buy some of those treasures.
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