The Kohinoor Diamond

The gem of Lahore

It is said that in 1306 a curse was placed on the men who wear the diamond: “He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity”

You must have heard the name of the diamond Kohinoor but did you ever dig into its history? It is the same diamond which is on the crown of the queen of England. But the question is how did it reach there?

Now let tell you the interesting story of this diamond that will reveal its importance. It is believed that the diamond was first mentioned more than 5,000 years ago in a Sanskrit script, where it was called the Syamantaka. Up until 1304 the diamond was in the possession of the Rajas of Malwa, but back then, the diamond was still not named Kohinoor. In 1304, it belonged to the Emperor of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji.

It is said that in 1306 a curse was placed on the men who wear the diamond: “He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity.”

In 1339, the diamond was taken back to the city of Samarkand, where it stayed for almost 300 years. Later in 1526 it came into the possession of the Mughal Emperor Babur. He called it the “Diamond of Babur” 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, mentioned the origins of this diamond in their memoirs, thought by many historians to be the earliest reliable reference to the Kohinoor. Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal Emperor, had the stone placed on his ornate Peacock Throne. In 1658, his son and successor Aurangzeb got hold of the diamond. Mahamad, the grandson of Aurangzeb, however, was not a fear-inspiring and great ruler like his grandfather. The Persian General Nadir Shah went to India in 1739 as he wanted to conquer the throne, which had been weakened during the reign of Sultan Mahamad. The Sultan lost the decisive battle and had to surrender to Nadir. It was him who gave the diamond its current name, Kohinoor, meaning “Mountain of light”. Nadir Shah did not live for long and the diamond got to one of his generals, Ahmad Shah Durrani. A descendant of Ahmad Shah, Shah Shuja Durrani, brought the Kohinoor back to India in 1813 and gave it to Ranjit Singh (the founder of the Sikh Empire). The Kohinoor diamond was given to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in one of the Havelis of the Walled City Lahore, The Mubarik haveli, inside Bhatti Gate. In exchange Ranjit Singh helped Shah Shuja get back the throne of Afghanistan.

Its new owner, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, willed the diamond to the Hindu temple of Jagannath in Puri, in modern-day Odisha, India. However, after his death in 1839, British administrators did not execute his will. In 1849, after the conquest of the Punjab by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated. The Kohinoor was transferred to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore. The properties of the Sikh Empire were taken as war compensation. Also one line of the Treaty of Lahore was dedicated to the fate of the Kohinoor. On 1 February 1850, the jewel was sealed in a small iron safe inside a red dispatch box, both sealed with red tape and a wax seal and kept in a chest at Bombay Treasury awaiting a steamer ship from China. It was then sent to England for presentation to Queen Victoria in the care of Captain J. Ramsay and Brevet Lt Col F. Mackeson under tight security arrangements, one of which was the placement of the dispatch box in a larger iron safe.

Members of the public were given a chance to see the Kohinoor when The Great Exhibition was staged at Hyde Park, London, in 1851. It was displayed in the Works in Precious Metals, Jewellery, etc, part of the South Central Gallery.

After the diamond was handed to Queen Victoria, it was exhibited at the Crystal Palace a year later. But the “Mountain of Light” was not shiny as the other cut gemstones of that era and there was a general disappointment regarding it. In 1852 the Queen decided to reshape the diamond and it was taken to a Dutch jeweler, Mr Cantor, who cut it to 108.93 carats. Under the supervision of Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington, and the technical direction of the queen’s mineralogist, James Tennant, the cutting took 38 days.

The sad fact, as reported by historians, is that when Queen Victoria showed the re-cut diamond to the young Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Kohinoor’s last non-British owner, he was apparently unable to speak for several minutes afterwards.

Historic records state that the much lighter but more dazzling stone was mounted in a brooch worn by the queen. At that time, it belonged to her personally, and was not yet part of the Crown Jewels. Although Victoria wore it often, she became uneasy about the way in which the diamond had been acquired. In a letter to her eldest daughter, Princess Royal, she wrote in the 1870s: “No one feels more strongly than I do about India or how much I opposed our taking those countries and I think no more will be taken, for it is very wrong and no advantage to us. You know also how I dislike wearing the Koh-i-Noor”.

The sad fact, as reported by historians, is that when Queen Victoria showed the re-cut diamond to the young Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Kohinoor’s last non-British owner, he was apparently unable to speak for several minutes afterwards

Queen Victoria wore the diamond occasionally afterwards. She left in her will that the Kohinoor should only be worn by a female queen. If the head of state was a man, his wife would have to carry the diamond. After Queen Victoria’s death, the Kohinoor became part of the Crown Jewels. After Queen Victoria’s death, the Kohinoor was set in the Crown of Queen Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII, that was used to crown her at their coronation in 1902. The diamond was later transferred to every queen who took the throne. The myth still goes on that men cannot wear it, as a curse, and therefore only the females of the Royal Family get to wear it.

Today, the diamond is set in the front of the Queen’s Crown, part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, and is seen by millions of visitors to the Tower of London each year.