Today, we know that the correct nomenclature
for a sapphire is "corundum". Although the word sapphire usually
means a blue gem, we also find sapphires in a wide range of
colors including violet, green, yellow, orange, pink and
purple. The Ceylon Blue Sapphire is known for its beauty –
possessing the glorious cornflower blue shade – as well as for
being one of the few sapphires in the world that can be sold as
a completely natural stone without heat treatment. All these
highly marketable qualities of Ceylon Sapphire has created brand
recognition world wide - a brand not created by the producers of
the stone, but by the sellers and consumers.
Although more than 2 dozen locales produce
sapphires, the three most famous regions are Kashmir, Burma, and
Sri Lanka. The most renown is Kashmir, a beautiful place high up
in the Himalayas. Kashmir produces "cornflower" blue sapphires.
Cornflower is an intense, medium-dark blue with a velvety
appearance. Burmese sapphires are also lovely, but the blue is
darker than those from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka produces a sapphire
that is lighter and brighter. Such sapphires are called Ceylon
sapphires (Sri Lanka was formerly known as Ceylon)
Unheated Yellow Sapphire Gemstones are the Astrological,
Jyotish Stones used in Vedic Astrology and
Ayurveda to propitiate Jupiter or Guru, which is the
planet of happiness, prosperity, luck and fortune.
