Origin
The story of Syamantaka appears in the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata. The jewel originally belonged to the Sun god, who wore it around his neck. It was said that whichever land possessed this jewel would never encounter any calamities in the form of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, earthquakes or famines, and would always be full of prosperity and plenitude. Wherever the jewel remained, it would produce for the keeper eight bhāras of gold daily ("Four rice grains are called one guñjā; five guñjās, one paṇa; eight paṇas, one karṣa; four karṣas, one pala; and one hundred palas, one tulā. Twenty tulās make up one bhāra.") Since there are about 3,700 grains of rice in an ounce, the Syamantaka jewel was producing approximately 170 pounds of gold every day. It was also the source of the dazzling appearance of the Sun god.
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