In , Mughal ruler Shah Jahan commissioned a magnificent, gemstone-encrusted throne. The bejeweled structure was inspired by the fabled throne of Solomon, the Hebrew king who figures into the histories of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. As court chronicler Ahmad Shah Lahore writes in his account of the throne:.
On top of each pillar there were to be two peacocks thick set with gems, and between each of the two peacocks a tree set with rubies and diamonds, emeralds and pearls. Among the many precious stones that adorned the throne were two particularly enormous gems that would, in time, become the most valued of all: the Timur Ruby—more highly valued by the Mughals because they preferred colored stones—and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. The diamond was lodged at the very top of the throne, in the head of a glistening gemstone peacock.
For a century after the creation of the Peacock Throne, the Mughal Empire retained its supremacy in India and beyond. It was the wealthiest state in Asia; Delhi, the capital city, was home to 2 million people, more than London and Paris combined.
But that prosperity attracted the attention of other rulers in Central Asia, including Persian ruler Nader Shah. When Nader invaded Delhi in , the ensuing carnage cost tens of thousands of lives and the depletion of the treasury. Nader left the city accompanied by so much gold and so many gems that the looted treasure required elephants, 4, camels and 12, horses to pull it and you thought all that fanfare in Aladdin was Disney-ized embellishment.
Nader took the Peacock Throne as part of his treasure, but removed the Timur Ruby and the Koh-i-Noor diamond to wear on an armband. The Koh-i-Noor would remain away from India—in a country that would become Afghanistan—for 70 years.
It passed between the hands of various rulers in one blood-soaked episode after another, including a king who blinded his own son and a deposed ruler whose shaved head was coronated with molten gold. With all the fighting between Central Asian factions, a power vacuum grew in India—and the British soon came to take advantage of it.
At the turn of the 19th century, the British East India Company expanded its territorial control from coastal cities to the interior of the India subcontinent. After decades of fighting, the diamond returned to India and came into the hands of Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh in , whose particular affection for the gem ultimately sealed its aura of prestige and power. For the British, that symbol of prestige and power was irresistible. If they could own the jewel of India as well as the country itself, it would symbolize their power and colonial superiority.
It was a diamond worth fighting and killing for, now more than ever. Seated comfortably with the Crown jewels of the Queen mother at the Tower of London, the Kohinoor diamond has been a bone of contention between the Indian and the British governments for decades. History has it that the British first came into possession of the diamond in after the conquest of Punjab, then under Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
The diamond, however, changed hands several times before finally coming into the ownership of the British. The origin of the diamond has been placed in the Golconda in Andhra Pradesh.
It was mined from the Rayalaseema diamond mine when it was under the rule of the Kakatiya dynasty. Under the rulership of Alauddin Khilji, the second ruler of the Delhi Sultanate dynasty, the Khiljis made successful raids in Southern India.
It is believed that the Khiljis came to acquire the diamond in one such expedition at Warangal in The diamond then kept switching ownership of the succeeding rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. But Metcalfe accumulated little more than colourful bazaar gossip that has since been repeated in article after article, book after book, and even sits unchallenged on Wikipedia today as the true history of the Koh-i-Noor.
Below are six of the main "myths" taken on in the book:. Reality: The Koh-i-Noor, which weighed All three diamonds left India as part of Iranian ruler Nader Shah's loot after he invaded the country in It was only in the early 19th Century, when the Koh-i-Noor reached the Punjab, that the diamond began to achieve its preeminent fame and celebrity.
Reality: The original uncut Koh-i-Noor was flawed at its very heart. Yellow flecks ran through a plane at its centre, one of which was large and marred its ability to refract light. That's why Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, was so keen that it be re-cut. The Koh-i-Noor is also far from being the largest diamond in the world: it's only the 90th largest. In fact, tourists who see it in the Tower of London are often surprised by how small it is, especially when compared to the two much larger Cullinan diamonds that are displayed near it.
Reality: It is impossible to know when the Koh-i-Noor was found, or where. That's what makes it such a mysterious stone. Some even believe that the Koh-i-Noor is, in fact, the legendary Syamantaka gem from the Bhagavad Purana tales of Krishna, one of the most popular Gods in the Hindu pantheon.
Indeed, according to Theo Metcalfe's report, tradition had it that "this diamond was extracted during the lifetime of Krishna". What we do know for sure is that it wasn't mined at all, but unearthed from a dry river bed, probably in south India. Indian diamonds were never mined but found in alluvial deposits of dry river beds.
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