How Rudraksha, gemstones, crystals and organic gems are tested and identified — written by the laboratory, for anyone who wants to understand what they own.
Placing a Rudraksha between two copper coins and watching it turn is a widely shared "authenticity" test. It demonstrates a bumpy surface and nothing else.
The four Cs work differently for coloured stones: colour dominates value, clarity is judged by species. How each is assessed and why grades are opinions.
Sphatik malas, spheres and shivlings are the crystal articles most often replaced with glass. How a laboratory tests each form of clear quartz.
A Rudraksha is a dried seed and lasts for decades with simple care. How to clean, oil and store beads and malas, what damages them, and how often to do what.
Most citrine on the market is heat-treated amethyst. How natural citrine and heated amethyst are told apart, and when the difference matters.
True cat's eye is chatoyant chrysoberyl. How it is separated from quartz, apatite and tourmaline cat's eye and from fibre-optic glass fakes.
How blue sapphire is confirmed as corundum, separated from synthetic spinel, glass, tanzanite and iolite, and examined for heating and diffusion treatment.
Black tourmaline is cheap but still substituted with black glass, obsidian and onyx. How its weight, double refraction and striations identify it.
Bhadraksha is a look-alike seed often sold as one- or two-mukhi Rudraksha. How the two differ in surface, shape and internal structure on X-ray.
Basra pearls are natural Gulf pearls, now essentially unobtainable. Why the name is attached to cultured pearls and what a lab can actually confirm.
Carving extra grooves into a common bead is the commonest Rudraksha fraud. What it looks like under magnification, and why the X-ray shows the true count.
Every line on a lab report card explained — report number, PIN, X-ray compartment count, RI, SG and conclusion — so you can read, check and match it.
Purple quartz is imitated by glass and grown synthetically in bulk. How a lab separates natural amethyst, synthetic amethyst and purple glass.
Amber is fossil resin, copal is young resin, plastic is neither. The salt-water, UV, solvent and magnification checks that separate all three.
Why japa malas have 108 beads: the astronomical, scriptural and mathematical explanations, how a mala is structured, and what a lab checks on one.
The laboratory examines Rudraksha, gemstones, malas, bracelets and crystals and issues a numbered, PIN-protected report you can verify online at any time.