Kohinoor Diamond, the pride of India - History of Shifting Kohinoor from India to Britain

Kohinoor Diamond

History of Shifting Kohinoor from India to Britain

Kohinoor, the pride of India, is one of the largest and most famous diamonds in the world. The value of which cannot be determined even today. When Babur took Kohinoor in hand, he said that the value of this diamond can feed the whole world for one day. When Nadir Shah got the Kohinoor, he said that if a person takes a stone and throws it around, the gap that will be created as far as the stone goes, even if this entire gap is filled with gold, it will not be as valuable as the Kohinoor.

There is a strange mystery about Kohinoor that till date no one has bought or tried to buy Kohinoor but Kohinoor has repeatedly been taken away or given away as gifts. According to historians, this diamond originated from Guntor in Andhra Pradesh and passed through the Kakatiya Empire to the Khilji, Mughals, Persians, Afghanis, Sikhs and finally the British. Over the centuries, rulers of various empires have used the Kohinoor as a symbol of their conquests. But like the precious Gemstone, Kohinoor is also cursed with bad luck, which has never been used by anyone except the female members of the British royal family. In this article, we will discuss this history of Kohinoor and how Kohinoor reached Britain from India.

👉 History of Shifting Kohinoor from India to Britain

Kohinoor has a complicated history. Historians disagree about the origin of the Kohinoor. Some claim that there is a mention of Kohinoor in the ancient Sanskrit texts of the 4th century, where Kohinoor is called a big diamond, while most historians say that the origin of Kohinoor is in the 11th-13th century in the Golconda mines of the Deccan province, which was then under the Kakatiya Empire. In a temple of the Kakatiyas at Barangal it was kept as the eye of the goddess.

It is said that initially the weight of Kohinoor was 793 carats. When Alauddin Khalji invaded South India in the early fourteenth century, his general Malik Kafur brought it to Delhi from Barangal, thus bringing the Kohinoor to Delhi. When Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi and started the Mughal Empire in India in 1526, Kohinoor came from Babur and Babur mentioned it in his autobiography, Babarnama where Kohinoor is called ‘Diamond of Babur’. This is the first book where Kohinoor is mentioned. After Babur's death his son Humayun got it and from Humayun Shah Jahan got it. Shah Jahan installed it on the famous Peacock Throne. The Peacock Throne was so famous that it took seven years to build and cost so much to build seven Taj Mahals.

Then during Aurangzeb's time, French traveler Travenier came to India and requested Aurangzeb to show him the Kohinoor diamond and then he brought a picture of Kohinoor. This is the first time a picture of Kohinoor has been published. Aurangzeb commissioned a Venetian diamond expert, Hotenzo Bourgeois, to cut the Kohinoor well and beautify it. But Bourgeois cut it very badly and the weight of Kohinoor reduced from 793 carats to 186 carats. As a result, Aurangzeb did not pay any remuneration to the bourgeois. After Aurangzeb, the decline of the Mughal Empire began.

Nadir Shah attacked Delhi in 1739 during the reign of Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah Rangeela, killing thousands and looting all the Mughal treasures, including the famous Peacock Throne and the almost twin diamond of Kohinoor, the Dary- e-Noor. But the Kohinoor was still with Mohammad Shah Rangeela, who used to hide it in his turban. Nadir Shah got the news through a spy and hatched a plan to take it. Before returning home from Delhi, Nadir Shah held a royal feast and announced that the throne of Delhi would be returned to Muhammad Shah and the two would exchange turbans as a symbol of their friendship. Muhammad Shah was forced to give his turban to Nadir Shah. And the Kohinoor thus fell to Nadir Shah. Enchanted by the beauty of Kohinoor, Nadir Shah named it Kohinoor. In Persian the word Kohi means mountain and Noor means light, i.e. Kohinoor means mountain light.

When Nadir Shah was assassinated in Iran in 1747, the ownership of Kohinoor came to Nadir Shah's general Ahmed Shah. Durrani dynasty in Afghanistan was founded by Ahmad Shah. During the reign of Shah Shuja, the power of the Duranis in Afghanistan declined and Shah Shuja fled to Punjab in India and took refuge with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh was given Kohinoor and Darya e Noor in return. Kohinoor remained with Maharaj Ranjit Singh for the next 20 years. Ranjit Singh thought of giving this diamond to the Jagannath temple in Orissa but died in 1839. At this time political trouble started in Punjab centered on the usurpation of power. Four rulers came to Punjab in four years and finally Duleep Singh became the ruler of Punjab when he was 10 years old. During this time the British occupied North India and came to Punjab, the British first imprisoned Duleep Singh's mother Jindan in 1849.

The British knew about Kohinoor. In 1849, under the leadership of Lord Dalhousie, the British and Duleep Singh signed the Treaty of Lahore in which Maharaj Duleep Singh was obliged to present the Kohinoor to the Queen of England. Kohinoor was sent to England by secret ship from Bombay. Even the ship's crew didn't know what was going on. In July 1850, Queen Victoria of England was given the Kohinoor.

But Queen Victoria did not like the shape of Kohinoor. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, had it reshaped by English and Dutch diamond experts. 450 hours of work to make Kohinoor oval shaped. In this, the weight of Kohinoor is reduced from 186 carats to 105.6 carats. This was done because Queen Victoria wanted it in her crown. A portrait by painter Franz Xavier Winterhalter shows Queen Victoria wearing a Kohinoor crown, which was previously worn by Queen Adelaide. After Queen Alexandria in 1902, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in 1937, the last Queen of England to wear the Kohinoor crown. Along with the Kohinoor, Queen Elizabeth's crown also featured a 17-carat diamond from the Sultan of Turkey, given to Queen Victoria, but the Kohinoor had none of it. The Kohinoor was then placed in the Jewel House of the Tower of London.

👉 Misfortune events related to Kohinoor

Many other precious stones also have many curses, bad luck stories about Kohinoor. An ancient book from the 13th century states that whoever falls into this diamond will conquer the world but with it the curse of the diamond will come. Only women and gods can hold it. An English newspaper referred to Kohinoor as the Mountain of Darkness. Richard Currin, author of The Legendary History of a Cursed Diamond, states that the Kohinoor has always been robbed and forced to give gifts for which this diamond is cursed. The ruler who keeps this diamond for himself has fallen. For example, the fall of the Mughal Empire, the fall of Nadir Shah, the escape of Shah Shuja to India, the submission of Duleep Singh to the British, and even the fall of the British Empire all indicate misfortune. But empires continue to rise and fall.

👉 Attempts to bring back Kohinoor

But the story associated with the Kohinoor is so strong that no man has ever worn the Kohinoor except the ladies of the British royal family. Several attempts were made to bring back the Kohinoor diamond to India. The first attempt was made in 1947 to bring the Kohinoor back to India as a symbol of India's independence. In 1976, Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto claimed Kohinoor, saying that much of Duleep Singh's kingdom belonged to Pakistan, so Kohinoor belongs to Pakistan. Recently, the Taliban and Iraq have claimed Kohinoor for Nadir Shah. In 2015, a group of Indian businessmen tried to bring back the Kohinoor, but the British royal family refused.

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