Natural charm

Most of us aren’t aware of the natural zircon that’s rare and beautiful yet pocket-friendly!

Often we come across the gemstone tree in various exhibitions. There’s a story behind it. A Hindu poet refers to it as the Kalpa Tree. The tree is the ultimate gift to the gods,a gleaming tree bearing fruits of gemstones and sparkling zircon leaves. So,one may adorn the place of worship with it. Zircon is a natural gemstone and has been used in various forms of jewellery all over the world for hundreds of years. The brilliant gemstone has its origin in the Persian word ‘zargun’ which means ‘gold coloured’ though it comes in a variety of colours. The zircon colour palette includes hues of colourless,green,dark red,yellow,brown and orange. The colourless also owing to its high refractive index and dispersion has a close resemblance to diamonds and is the most sought after. It is a silicate mineral,zirconium silicate. Zircon is also admired for its brilliant blue tones and is also the alternate birthstone for the December born. The blue variant is mostly available in pastel shades though its rare bright blue is breathless. In Middle Ages,the stone was believed to bring honour and wisdom to the wearer. Many also had conviction that wearing it would bestow them with worldly riches. Today,it’s mostly used in jewellery. The stone is also highly misunderstood on account of it’s simulate – the laboratory grown cubic zirconium,which is a diamond imitation. This leaves most people uninformed about the natural zircon. The natural gemstone is mined in Cambodia,Thailand,Myanmar,Australia and other countries. Zircon is rare,beautiful and very pocket-friendly. You may pick one to pass it down generations as it gets rarer.

(The writer is a city-based researcher specialising in jewellery art and can be contacted at

sameeraahaan02@gmail.com)