Geology

'Golconda' diamonds found on the Indian subcontinent, were created from the enormous forces generated by the 'Tethys Oceanic Crust' colliding, and being subducted under the 'Asian Continental plate' (aka plate tectonics). Although these massive continental plates collided at the incredibly slow rate of 10 centimetres per year, this was enough force over 100s of millions of years, to create the Himalayan Mountain range, and to cause the necessary volcanic activity to create diamondiferous intrusive and extrusive igneous rock known as 'kimberlite.'

Millions of years of erosion caused by rainfall and snow-melt, unearthed the diamonds from their kimberlite source, and washed them downstream to their final resting place in the alluvial river gravels of the 'Golconda' region.

Golconda (golkunda) was a region located between the lower reaches of the Godavari and Krishna rivers, in the present-day state of Andhra Pradesh, central India (map above). Today, the exact source of the 'lost mines of Golconda' are unknown, and the India's only remaining diamond source is the Majhgawan pipe near Panna (see:" Mining in India Today" below).

Diamonds are inextricably woven into the cultural fabric and mysticism of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Tibetan Lamaism. The 'dorjes' is an ancient Buddhist talisman shaped like a pyramidal four-faceted diamond [2] representing the sacred mountain of Mount Meru at the 'center of the universe.'