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Vindhyan Rock System

India’s Panna diamonds don’t come from a kimberlite pipe alone. Much of the story runs through one of the country’s oldest and largest sedimentary rock systems.

The Vindhya Range as seen from the Malwa Plateau, Madhya Pradesh. Photo: Varun Shiv Kapur via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Map of India’s major hill ranges, showing the Vindhyas running across central India. Map: Nichalp via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Indian Geography · IndGeo0003

The Vindhyan Rock System

~1,800-1,600 Ma

Semri Group (Lower Vindhyan)

Limestone, shale, sandstone and volcanic tuffs deposited across the Son Valley and Bundelkhand.

~400 Myr gap

Major Depositional Hiatus

A long pause with no recorded sediment separates the Semri Group from the groups above it.

~1,200-700 Ma

Kaimur, Rewa & Bhander Groups

Upper Vindhyan groups deposit sandstone and shale — Rewa’s conglomerates later yield Panna’s diamonds.

One system, nearly a billion years

A rock “system” and a rock’s “age” aren’t the same idea — the Vindhyan Supergroup’s single name spans roughly a billion years of deposition, interrupted by a major mid-history gap.

📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know

Must Know

The Vindhyan Supergroup is one of India’s largest Precambrian sedimentary rock systems, roughly 1.7 to 1.0 billion years old.
It spans from Sasaram, Bihar in the east to Chittorgarh, Rajasthan in the west, covering the Son Valley and Bundelkhand region.
The system reaches a maximum thickness of about 3 km, made mainly of sandstone, shale, and limestone.
It’s mostly undeformed and unmetamorphosed, meaning its original layered structure has stayed largely intact.
Stratigraphically, it splits into four groups, oldest to youngest: Semri, Kaimur, Rewa, and Bhander.

Good to Know

The Semri Group (Lower Vindhyan) was deposited around 1,800-1,600 million years ago. The Kaimur, Rewa, and Bhander Groups (Upper Vindhyan) followed much later, around 1,200-700 million years ago.
Famous Panna diamonds come from this system, mined from kimberlite pipes, conglomerate beds within the Rewa Group, and Quaternary river gravels.
Golconda diamonds also trace back to Vindhyan-associated diamond-bearing horizons.
Beyond diamonds, the system yields limestone, building-grade sandstone, and minor pyrite and coal deposits.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

A major gap separates the Semri Group from the Kaimur Group above it, roughly 400 million years with no deposition recorded. The basin wasn’t one continuous story; it paused significantly partway through.
Nearly a billion years of history sits inside a single named rock system, a reminder that “rock system” and “rock age” aren’t the same idea at all.
Diamonds found in conglomerate layers, not just kimberlite pipes, show how weathering and river transport can concentrate diamonds far from their original volcanic source.

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