Author: Sonu Jain
Publication: The New Indian Express, Hyderabad
Date: June 24, 2000
The bylanes of the Muzaffarnagar sarrafa (gold market) are abuzz with
rumours. Everyone talks about the brisk sale of 'Mandi gold.' There should
be several sellers. That night, when the news that gold was found in Mandi
village spread like wildfire, hundreds had descended on the field to grab
their share of gold and history.
Twenty days later, the market, with 1oo-odd shops, is ready to buy gold
at half the rate and is always waiting for sellers. Every visitor, they
hope, is coming with a pot of gold. Just the mention of the world gold'
is enough to light up the eyes of the merchants in this market, notorious
for being the nodal centre for stolen jewellery.
Everyone agrees that someone else is buying the treasure gold in the
sarrafa. "Yes, we have heard that it is being sold here. More will be sold
later. But I have not bought it," said Moolchand of Moolchand Tarachand,
one of the biggest shops there.
Though 10 kg of the gold is locked away in DM Dinesh Chandra Mishra's
strongroom, according, to officials at the Archaeological Survey of India,
nearly three times as much has been pilfered by the villagers before the
authorities got wind of this Harappan treasure. The market was all ears
when ASI officials in Delhi announced that nearly 30 quintals had been
taken away before the ASI arrived on the scene.
However, one of the prominent Jewellers who refused to divulge his name,
said that he had bought one and a half grams of the gold but melted it
immediately. "It was small, round but flat pieces, covered with dirt Now
with the administration tightening their noose, people who possess this
have gone into hiding," he said.
The merchants feel they have the right to possess this gold. Some local
jewellers whose ancestors have been doing the same business for years,
have this story to tell: In the Kushan dynasty, the jewellers used to live
just outside the main city in a colony. They used small gold sequence to
decorate the royal elephants. It is this colony which has been discovered.
However, there is no historical proof to back their claims, but their conviction
reveals how this gold has fired their imagination.
Though the jewellers try to buy third gold in a very clandestine way,
news travels fast as they come to borrow money from each other for a big
transaction the treasure gold, insiders say, is being sold at half the
price of normal gold.
The market was abuzz with the story of a jeweller who was cheated of
nearly one lakh rupees. Somebody came with round, flat rings, exactly the
ones they showed on television, complete with dirt and grime. After testing
a couple of them, they were found to be of gold.
As he began to test the rest, the person who had come to sell said he
could not wait till the entire lot was tested. Take it or leave it, was
his attitude.
For the shopkeeper it was too big a temptation rind the deal was struck
at Rs 1 lakh. Later, except the first few, the rest of them were found
to be of brass.
The administration denies knowledge of this incident. According to the
District Magistrate Mishra no complaint has been lodged, hence no action
can be taken. A complaint will never be filed, as the person who is buying
this gold is also a partner in crime.
There were also reports that hearing about Mandi gold, goldsmiths form
neighbouring cities like Meerut and Panipat descended oh the city. "Some
'of them came, even went to the village to try and buy this gold, in the
first few days," said a jeweller.
