WILLIAM  DALRYMPLE

                                                  

Koh-i-Noor by Wiliam Dalrymple and  Anita Anand ; Published by Juggernaut  ; Pages 239 ; Price Rs.499/-

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When I visited the “ Tower of London “ I saw at close quarters the “Koh-i-Noor” Diamond which had adorned the crown of the British Queen. Now comes a book on the famed diamond-- written in two parts. The  first part is by William Dalrymple ,Scottish historian, noted Travel writer and impressive historian of the Mughals and Afghanistan. He who deals with  the history of Koh-i-Noor and its time with the  Mughals and in Iran, Afghanistan etc. The second part is  by Anita Anand ,a London based journalist, who wrote on the granddaughter of  the last Maharajah to own the diamond. She recounts  how the diamond found its resting place in London and what was the reaction of the monarchy to it. 

The book is a dramatic re-telling of a saga of loot, murder, torture, deceit and colonial greed intertwined with the diamond. Dalrymple and Anita make an admirable attempt to distinguish history from myth.

 Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, ‘retains a fame and celebrity unmatched by any of its larger or more perfect rivals’ even though there are eighty – nine diamonds larger than it. What makes the Koh-i-Noor so infamous and alluring that all the other gems that once rivalled it have been forgotten?.

The Koh-i-Noor —  the 'Mountain of Light' — was a 190.3 metric carat stone. Its very early origins are difficult to establish. Its first possibly verifiable appearance is as part of Shah Jahan’s peacock throne. The gem, in its original shape and size, did not glitter as European-cut diamonds did. Stung at the criticism, Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s husband) ordered that it be cut to better catch the light. And so the Koh-i-Noor was cut to size — reduced by more than half to about 90 metric carats. Today, it lies glittering in its case at the Tower of London.

 The  diamond  remains  a symbol of looting during colonial times. According to Dalrymple  “There is absolutely no doubt about how the gem was taken away. It is complete nonsense to say it was gifted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh” . However, the Indian Solicitor General, Ranjit Kumar, told the Supreme Court “ …that the diamond had been gifted to the East India Company by Ranjit Singh.” The Ministry of Culture distanced itself from its Solicitor General’s comments.

The origin of the Koh-i-Noor  is still uncertain but it is supposed to have originated from South India where gems and precious stones of such extravagance were   used to decorate idols in temples. The Koh-i-Noor, among other brilliant stones, made its way to the Mughal treasury and it was considered to be one of the most valuable possessions. And so bedazzled was Shah Jahan by its size and beauty that he got it embedded in his grand peacock throne. India's gems and diamonds, particularly the Koh-i-Noor, were so popular, that the Afghan ruler, Nader Shah, couldn't keep his hands off and took the throne, along with the diamond, back to his kingdom.

The story continues further till the glorious diamond   reached the hands of the Sikh ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After many deaths and the destruction of the Sikh empire that followed, the diamond was finally taken away by the Britishers from the hands of the boy king, Duleep Singh and was sent off to England, to awe Queen Victoria.

 “We do not know anything about it in clear terms till the 1740s, when one of the historians of Nader Shah, Muhammad Kazim Marwi, mentions that he saw it clearly when he was in Herat, attached to the head of one of the peacocks in the Peacock Throne”

There is a curse associated with the Koh-i-Noor. You can’t say it is cursed, but many people who held it had terrible luck. Nader Shah was assassinated, Ahmed Shah Abdali had his face eaten away by maggots. Shah Zaman was blinded. Shah Shuja was deposed and his son tortured in front of him. Five of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s successors met a violent death. There was an outbreak of cholera on the ship that took the stone to London. The Duke of London who began cutting it, died. The present Queen has not worn it even once.

The book abounds in interesting characters, but Dalrymple is fascinated by Nader Shah. “All the other kings inherited power. Nader Shah was the son of a shepherd who worked his way up. Having said that, he was a very puritanical and unpleasant character.” Dalrymple recounts how John Lawrence kept it in his pocket and forgot about it. “Before that, it was used as a paper weight by a Maulvi.”

 There are many references to large diamonds in sources from Vijayanagar, Babur’s diary and Humayun’s . Koh-i-Noor became  a symbol of British  loot in India, which was seen by three million people  in the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London.

The opening chapter deals with the Indian pre-history of the Koh-i-Noor, where Dalrymple talks about how Hindus began to equate the diamond with the Syamantaka and the legends of Krishna. The “Jahangirnama” is full of stories of diamonds.

While the Mughals are known to be fashionable, one does not  associate such a craze with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was during his reign that the Koh-i-Noor acquired singular status. “For him, it was a symbol of conquering the Durranis,”

  “Lord Dalhousie gave the task of finding out the history of the gem to Theo Metcalfe. Now this bloke began to trace the history of the gem in Delhi a whole 100 years after the Koh-i-Noor was last there. He goes around the streets of Delhi gathering gossip. And, this bazaar gossip of 1849 became the history of Koh-i-Noor. Theo  had a theory that Nader Shah acquired the Koh-i-Noor through a turban swap with Muhammad Shah Rangila. ”

As Nadir Shah is assassinated, the diamond once again finds itself a new home, Afghanistan, where it remains for the next seventy years. From there the diamond finds its way to the treasury of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, however, not before being used as a paperweight by an ignorant mullah. Here, in the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ‘the Koh-i-Noor first began to achieve real fame and gained the singular status it has retained ever since.’

 Anita  deals with the history of the diamond from the mid-nineteenth century. Continuous succession wars, finally led to the elevation of  the Boy King, Duleep Singh as the crown king with Rani Jindan as the regent. Like Ranjit Singh, the British coveted the diamond hungrily and set the stage for its conquest under the guise of the Second Anglo-Sikh War. With the signing of the Treaty of Lahore, the diamond was permanently lost to India. However, Koh-i-Noor did not hold the same magnificence for everyone. Before its final passage to England, the diamond was left in the care of John Lawrence for a brief period who, according to his biographer, ‘solemnly removed it from its casket, placed in in his waistcoat pocket, took it home and promptly forgot all about it.’

   History comes alive and it is indeed an enticing tale of the ill famous diamond that now sits in the Tower of London, giving hope to the people of its return to its original land. However the diamond is claimed by Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban.

This is an un-put-downable book that can match the suspense and speed of a Sherlock Holmes novel.

P.P.Ramachandran.

10 / 09 / 2017