The exotic name “padparaja” is familiar only to jewelers, connoisseurs and lovers of precious stones. It is sapphire in structure and chemical composition, but outwardly it is completely different from it. Padparaj - rare and valuable, it is among the ten most expensive and beautiful stones in the world.
Material Content:
Origin History and Description
The poetic name "lotus color" is a translation from Sanskrit. At home, this precious crystal is called the “palm of the rajaya,” which means the same thing. This name was given to him by the Sinhalese - the indigenous inhabitants of Sri Lanka. The first precious crystals were mined there 2000 years ago. The deposit was almost exhausted, and the last stone of the highest quality padparaj, considered the standard, was sold in Sri Lanka 20 years ago. He weighed a little less than 2 carats and was valued at 18,000 dollars.
Padparajas are also found in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. But their quality is slightly worse. The Tanzanian padparaja is difficult to distinguish from Sri Lankan. And the stones mined in Madagascar, noticeable non-standard brownish tint.
The price of a real fantasy sapphire is very high and amounts to tens of thousands of dollars per carat. And despite the fact that stones larger than 2 carats are extremely rare. Samples weighing 5 carats are only available in private collections. The real miracle is padparaj weighing just over 100 carats. It can be seen in the exposition of the historical museum in New York.
In Russia, scarlet yachts, as padparaj sapphires were then called, were considered rubies with an unusual color. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, experts also thought so.This is actually a different kind of corundum, crystalline alumina. The closest relatives of the padparajas are rubies and ordinary sapphires. Their color is determined by impurities, usually vanadium, chromium, titanium and iron. In total, there are up to 40 different colors of corundum, most often the place of their find is the island of Sri Lanka, for which it is sometimes called a casket with stones. All of them are presented at the Mineralogical Museum in St. Petersburg. In padparaj, the combination of chromium and ferric iron provides an unusual color.
In hardness, this stone is slightly inferior to diamond - 9 on the Mohs scale. Jewelers note the fragility of the stone. For this reason, it is quite difficult to process. Cleavage of the mineral is absent. Transparency is very high, and internal defects are extremely rare.
Padparaj Stone and Its Properties
Oriental philosophers believe that stones with shades of orange give their owners enlightenment. Padparaja has a very strong and complex energy. This stone does not fit all the signs of the zodiac and has great magical power. It just has unique properties.
Magical
It will be useful to its owner padparaj for all occasions:
- Keep love in the family, make the relationship harmonious.
- Saves from cheating.
- It will become a charm from witchcraft and corruption.
- Will give attractiveness, seductiveness, beauty.
- Saves from betrayal and evil people.
- It will help to overcome fear, provide a calm and harmonious life, and pacify passions.
- Will make his master decisive, courageous, save from slander, slander.
- Will reveal creative abilities, ennoble thoughts.
- It will open spirituality and help with prayer.
- Used for meditation, purifying the energy of the owner.
This stone is also loved by lithotherapists. They use not magic, but other properties of padparaja.
Medical
The effect of the mineral on the body is diverse:
- Helps improve vision and recover from eye diseases.
- Frees the skin from various growths, treats leprosy.
- A good helper in the treatment of diabetes, heart disease, liver and kidney pathologies.
- Saves from hysteria and epilepsy, treats neuralgia.
- Tidies up the immune system, protects against infectious and viral diseases.
- It will help with various tumors.
- Reduces joint pain with rheumatism.
- Cope with impotence.
- Good wound healing.
The healing effect is possessed not only by jewelry with a stone, but also by infusion from it. To prepare it, just put padparaj in a glass of clean water. After a day, you can drink water. The therapeutic effect is noticeable after a month of such procedures.
Colors and varieties of fancy sapphire
Real fantasy sapphires have a lot of requirements. Experts believe that the color of the stone should be similar to the tenderness of lotus flowers and at the same time to the expression of the sunset sky. Delicate, but at the same time bright gems are literally mesmerizing with a combination of three colors: pink, orange and red. Experts believe that each of them in this padparaj should be equally divided.
There are 2 types of stones:
- iridescent;
- with clear coloring borders.
A feature of padparaja is the ability to change hue when lighting from different angles, while one of the three color components begins to dominate. This phenomenon is called the pleochroism effect. It is rare in gemstones. Padparajas, which have a classic combination of all three colors in color, are extremely rare. Fancy sapphires are more common, in which one of them predominates - pink or orange.
Orange
In nature, pure orange sapphires are extremely rare. In most of them, to some extent, shades of pink and red are present. They are very expensive. Jewelers use emerald or diamond cuts for them and set them in gold and platinum, creating amazing luxurious jewelry with fabulous value.
The black
In nature, black fantasy sapphires are quite common. Many of them have an asterism effect due to the inclusion of rutile needle crystals. But padparaja to call this stone is wrong.
Pink gem
There are stones in which pink predominates over red and orange, but in the present padparaja all three of them must be present. The pink stone they are trying to sell under this name is most likely an ordinary pink sapphire.
Very often, to give brightness and the right shade, fantasy sapphires are heat treated, which affects the quality of the stones and their price.
The combination of natural and heated stones in the gem market is 1: 9. But more often, ordinary colorless corundums are used for this. Unscrupulous sellers try to pass them off as rare padparaj stones, but the price of such imitations is much lower. With a careful examination under a microscope, it is easy to find traces of heat treatment, the so-called thermal cracks.
You can achieve the desired color in several ways:
- By placing a colorless stone in a mixture containing chromium, and burning in a furnace with a temperature of about 1800 degrees. The color of such products is uneven.
- The method of ion implantation. So you can paint the stone only to a depth of a tenth of a millimeter.
- Gamma radiation is used to enhance the color intensity of pale stones. The effect of such processing is not bad, but short-lived.
The real padparaj does not need all these procedures, but you can rarely find him on the jewelry market.
Amulets and talismans made of Padparaj mineral
The magical power of the stone is great. It can become an amulet to a person for life. It is believed that determining whether a stone has taken its owner is fairly easy. You just need to put it under the pillow. Light and pleasant dreams at night indicate that the padparaj and his master were ideally suited to each other. It doesn’t matter what product the stone will be in, and the frame plays a role only for healing it. As an amulet, it is used to protect against evil eye and love spell, as a guard against evil forces. He will make the owner irresistible in the eyes of the desired person.
It is used in esoteric practice, as an amulet is present among magicians and sorcerers, helping to learn unknown secrets. This stone gives spirituality and promotes enlightenment if it is in sight during prayer. Unfortunately, it is difficult to buy an amulet from it, since there are very few natural, not heated stones that have a certificate on sale.
What zodiac sign suits
If padparaj belongs to a woman-Cancer, he will give her self-confidence, relieve fears and anxiety. In Lviv, Aquarius, Sagittarius and he will create harmony in the soul, protect from rash acts. And among the latter, padparaj contributes to the manifestation of individuality, making them attractive. You should not wear this stone to Capricorn, it can even harm some of them. He will help all other signs of the zodiac with many problems.
