The Kohinor Diamond is a cursed one , bringing misfortune to the owner.
The Kohinoor Diamond, meaning Mountain of Light in Persian, is now with the British, and is embedded in the Royal Crown.
Kohinoor,
Was mined in Kolluru Mines, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh,India.
It was 793 when it was uncut.
It is now a 105.6 metric carats diamond, weighing 21.6 grammes .
Exact value of the stone is not known, but in the 1500s it was considered that the diamond’s value corresponds to about half of the world’s total production costs in one day. Of course, with a diamond so unique, it is hard to put a monetary value attached to it.
The fact that it never changed hands through a documented sale doesn’t help our evaluation. The Kohinoor was always stolen, bartered or gifted and never sold.
As comparison the most expensive documented sale of a diamond occurred around 60 years ago, when the Graff pink was sold in Hong Kong for $46 million.
The Graff pink weighs “only” 24,78 carats compared to the 106 carats that the Koh-i-noor weighs though.
Even if the value of the Kohinoor diamond is not known, it is part of the Crown Jewels, and the whole value of the Crown Jewels is between $10 and $12 billion.
Kohinoor was the Eye of Bhadrakali in Warangal,Andhra Pradesh.
It was donated by the Kakatiya Kings.
In 1323,Ghiyath al-dhin Thughlak defeatedthe Kakatiyas and true to Islamic style vandalised the Temple and took away the Kohinoor.
He was late killed by his son.
The Kohinoor changed many hands before it landed with the Maharaja Of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjith Singh.
He donated the Kohinoor to Puri Jagannath Temple and died.
The British refused to hand over the diamond to the Temple.
In 1850, the Kohinoor was stolen and was delivered to the British.
‘
The diamond remained with Khilji dynasty, and later passed on to the succeeding dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate, until it came into the possession of Babur, a Turco-Mongol war lord, who invaded India and established the Mughal Empire in 1526. He called the stone ‘the Diamond of Bābur’ at the time, although it had been called by other names before it came into his possession. Both Babur and his son and successor, Humayun mention in their memoirs the origins of ‘the Diamond of Bābur’.
A 1757 miniature of Ahmad Shāh Durrānī, the Emir of Afghanistan, in which the Koh-i-Noor diamond is seen hanging on the front of hiscrown, above his forehead.
The diamond remained locked in the Mughal treasury until it was taken out by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor. Shah Jahan, famous for building the Taj Mahal in Agra, had the stone placed into his ornate Peacock Throne. His son, Aurangazeb, imprisoned his ailing father at nearby Agra Fort. While in the possession of Aurangazeb, it was cut by Hortenso Borgia, a Venetian lapidary, who was so clumsy that he reduced the weight of the stone to 186 carats.[12] Legend has it that he had the Koh-i-Noor positioned near a window so that Shāh Jahān could see the Tāj Mahal only by looking at its reflection in the stone. Following the invasion of Nadir Shah, the ruler of Afsharid Persia in 1739 and the sacking of Agra and Delhi. Along with the Peacock Throne, he also carried off the Koh-i-Noor to Persia in 1739. It was allegedly Nādir Shāh who exclaimed Koh-i-Noor! when he finally managed to obtain the famous stone,[4] and this is how the stone gained its present name. There is no reference to this name before 1739.
The valuation of the Koh-i-Noor is given in the legend that one of Nader Shah’s consorts supposedly said, “If a strong man should take five stones, and throw one north, one south, one east, and one west, and the last straight up into the air, and the space between filled with gold and gems, that would equal the value of the Koh-i-Noor.”
After the assassination of Nādir Shāh in 1747, the stone came into the hands of his general, Ahmad Shāh Durrānī, who later became the Emir of Afghanistan. In 1830, Shujāh Shāh Durrānī, the deposed Emir of Afghanistan and a descendant of Ahmad Shah Durrani, managed to flee with the diamond. He went to Lahore where the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh forced him to surrender the stone and took its possession.’
Britain is still hand over the Kohinoor Diamond to india, despite repeated demands.
Read the sordid story as to how the British acquired the Kohinoor at,
Citation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor
You must be logged in to post a comment.