History, Mythology and Use of Gems and Gem Therapy continues.....

The Agni purana has another interesting story about gemstones. Indra—The King of Gods was defeated and then subsequently dethroned and banished from the heavens by a powerful demon called as Vrittasura or Vritra.

Vrittasura took all the water of the world for himself and his demon army so that all beings die of hunger and thirst and there would be no one to challenge his authority. This demon was blessed that he could not be killed by any known weapon till the date of this blessing and in addition he could not be killed by any weapon made of wood or metal.

Indra and other Gods approached the divine creator Brahma and requested a solution. Brahma advised that a weapon—the Vajra- Thunderbolt be fashioned from the bone of the spine of Maharishi Dadhichi would be able to slay Vrittasura.

Dadhichi was a great sage and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva. He had developed high spiritual energy and consciousness due to his deep meditation and sadhna-spiritual practices. Indra approached Dadhichi and spoke about his predicament and the instructions given by Lord Brahma.

Dadhichi then advised Indra that salt be applied to his body when he was in a deeply meditative state and then it was to be licked by Kamadhenu—the celestial cow. This would make the flesh come off and the spine could be taken out of the skeleton.

Indra performed this and took the undamaged spine of Dadhichi to the divine architect—Vishwakarma so that the spine could be fashioned as Vajra—The Thunderbolt.

It is said that when Vishwakarma was making the weapon some pieces of the spine fell at four distinct spaces on earth and these spaces became the origin of the mines of Diamond.

To be continued.....