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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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vain
to pierce. It is said that the vast treasures of the room center upon a
glittering life-size image of the Buddha. It is formed of solid gold
and adorned with a thousand magnificent diamonds. The priests teach
that it is of supernatural origin and ascribe its execution to the
creative energy of Visvakarma, a personification of the formative
energy in the cosmos.
The
origin of many of the diamond superstitions is obscure. One of them,
probably erroneously, is said to explain why rings usually are worn on
fingers of the left hand. A Parisian oracle on mystic subjects, the
Baron d'Orchamps, announced that the diamond, if worn on the left side,
warded off evil influences and attracted good fortune and since he had
fashionable clients the word spread and the wearing of the diamond on
the left hand became in itself a fashion.
In
India a flawed stone was believed to bring misfortune, while the shape
of an uncut diamond was thought to be of some significance. A
triangular stone, for instance, boded evil and caused quarrels; a
four-sided gem was credited with causing vague terrors; and the
five-sided variety, shunned most of all, was said to bring death. Only
a complete six-pointed octahedron was regarded as lucky, for the
ancients held that all precious stones lived and breathed and had souls
and expressed their characters through their rough shapes.
In
India, also, gemmed ornaments were believed to bring to the wearer
"respect, fame, longevity, wealth, happiness, strength and fruition,"
certainly enough benefits to be derived from a single stone. The Hindu
physicians claimed that they had found the diamond to possess six
flavors: it was sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and acrid. Since
it united all these, it is understandable that the Hindu medicos
(204)
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