The Koh-i-Noor (“Mountain of Light”) may not be the world’s largest diamond, as many people believe (it actually ranks at only 90th, as the authors of this riveting book reveal) but it is certainly one that has been the most written and talked about. It has also perhaps been the most coveted.
“Frustrating as it is, we simply do not know for sure the origin of the Kohinoor,” conclude the authors convincingly, “and have no hard information as to when, how or where it entered Mughal hands. We only know for sure how it left.”
In 1739, after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire was in decline but its spread was vast, consisting of almost all of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It was also fabulously wealthy, its Capital, Delhi, having in the Imperial coffers several generations of accumulated gold and gems of all kinds and sizes. These were in the very unsafe hands of the effete and pleasure-seeking Mohammed Shah (nicknamed rangeela, the colourful). Among the treasures he possessed was the Shah Jahan-commissioned Peacock Throne, “the most spectacular jewelled object ever made”. Since the Mughals somehow valued diamonds less than other gemstones such as rubies and emeralds, the Kohinoor probably adorned one of the two peacocks on this throne.
Eyeing the immense riches of Delhi was an illiterate, ruthless but militarily proficient neighbour, Nader Shah, an Afshar Turkman who rose to become Persia’s ruler. After subduing Afghanistan, he faced a Mughal force, one-million strong. He only had some light cavalry but 1,50,000 deadly musketeers. He outmaneuvred the Mughal army and “within a few minutes, the flower of Mughal chivalry lay dead on the ground”. The military rout was followed by a massacre of Delhi’s civilian population.
Nader Shah finally left carrying with him the accumulated wealth of eight generations of Mughal conquest, “loaded on 700 elephants, 4,000 camels and 12,000 horses carrying wagons all laden with gold, silver and precious stones”.
In the loot was the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor. Soon after, Nader Shah was assassinated and the diamond came into the possession of Ahmed Shah Abdali, an Afghan warlord and the victor of the 1761 battle of Panipat, where he crushed the Maratha Confederacy, creating a formidable Muslim Empire that included Afghanistan, part of Persia, Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh.
Sikh Emperor Ranjit Singh is the next ruler who figures in the fascinating history of the Kohinoor. He prised the diamond from the then Afghan ruler, after defeating him, stooping to torture to get his way. Ranjit Singh loved wearing the diamond, strapped to his bicep. After his death, the British defeated the Sikhs in a series of close and ferociously-fought battles. Needless to say, the Kohinoor was among the “spoils of war”. It eventually found its way to the Tower of London and the crown of the British regent, where it now lies. India is not the only country that has laid claim for its return. Pakistan has, too. After all, the Capital of Ranjit Singh’s Empire was Lahore. So has Iran, with even more justification. Believe it or not, the Taliban is another claimant! Probably because the diamond spent some years in Afghanistan, which was once ruled by them. Sadly for all these claimants, including New Delhi, the UK is where it belongs and where it will stay, at least for the forseeable future. You cannot reverse history.
The book is divided into two parts. The first by William Dalrymple, who takes the history of the diamond to the death of Ranjit Singh and the second by Anita Anand (a Britisher of Indian origin) to the diamond’s ownership by the British. Dalrymple is well-known as somebody who has brought Indian history alive as no other writer has. He does not let us down with Kohinoor. Anand matches him and the two parts of the book become seamlessly one. A must read for history buffs.