Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . treasure is the famous Koh-i-noor, or mountain of light. The history of this stone is obscure, but, as al-ready mentioned, it is believed to be the same gemas that described by Ta vernier among the jewels ofAurengzebe. According to a Hindu legend it wasworn by one of the heroes of the Indian epic poemthe Mahabharata, and it would therefore have ahistory extending backward about 4000 down to later times we find it in possessionof Vikramaditya, rajah of Ujayin, 56 , fromwhom it passed to his successors, the rajahs ofMa
Diamonds and precious stones, a popular account of gems .. . treasure is the famous Koh-i-noor, or mountain of light. The history of this stone is obscure, but, as al-ready mentioned, it is believed to be the same gemas that described by Ta vernier among the jewels ofAurengzebe. According to a Hindu legend it wasworn by one of the heroes of the Indian epic poemthe Mahabharata, and it would therefore have ahistory extending backward about 4000 down to later times we find it in possessionof Vikramaditya, rajah of Ujayin, 56 , fromwhom it passed to his successors, the rajahs ofMalwa, and latterly to the sultans of Delhi, whenMalwa fell into their possession. Its later histor>is given by Mr. Hunt as follows:—Nadir Shah, CELEBRATED DIAMONDS. 95 on his occupation of Delhi in 1739, compelled Mo-hammed Shah, the great-grandson of Aurengzebe,to give up to him everything of value that the im-perial treasury possessed ; and his biographer andsecretary signifies a peshkash or present by Mo-hammed Shah to his conqueror of several mag-. Fig. 40.—The Koh-i-noor before re-cutting. nificent diamonds. According to the family andpopular tradition Mohammed Shah wore the Koh-i-noor in front of his turban at his interview withhis conqueror, who insisted in exchanging turbansin proof of his regard. However this might havebeen, we need have littlç doubt that the great dia^- 96 PRECIOUS STONES. mond of Aurengzebe was in the possession of Mo-hammed Shah at the time of the Persian invasion ;and if it was it most certainly changed masters,and became, as is universally asserted, the propertyof Nadir Shah, who is also said to have bestowedupon it the name of Koh-i-noor. After his deaththe diamond, which he had wrested from the unfor-tunate representative of the house of Timur, becamethe property of Ahmed Shah, the founder of theAbdali dynasty of Kabul, having been given to him,or more probably taken by him, from Shahrikh,the young son of Nadir. The jewel descended tothe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectgems, booksubjectprec
