The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-15
THE KCH-I-NOOR.
All That Is Known of the History of This
Famous and Valuable Stone.

"
All That Is Known of the History of This
Famous and Valuable Stone.
st. Louis Republican.
On great state occasions the Queen of Eng
land and Empress of India wears, in the
form OF a brooch or pin, a diamond whose
history is as strange as its value is immense.
No reliable account of its origin has ever
been obtained, but according to Indian
legend it was found in the mines of Col
conda, near the Kishna river, and worn
5000 years by Kama, one of the mythical
heroes immortalized in the Mahabharata-
1t became the prize of victory to the Turkish
invaders OF Hindostan, and from them
passed into the possession of the Mogul en-
perors. "My son, Humayoun," said Baber,
the greatest OF them, has won a jewel from
the rajah which is valued at half the daily
expenses of the world" Baber's sue
cessor showed it to Tavernier, the
French traveller, in 1865. In 1879, Nadir
Shah, the Persian conqueror, seeing it gilt
ter in the turban of the Mogul prince whom
he had just defeated and captured, said: we
will be friends now; let us change our tur-
bans in pledge of friendship" The transfer
was made, of course, for it was simply a
choice between losing the diamond and los
ing his head; and the new owner christened
it Koh-i-noor, or mountain of light"
Ahmed Shah, the Afghan %conqueror re-
lieved Nadir's successors of it, and from him
it descended to Runjeet Sing, the Lion OF
the Punjab," and ruler of Lahore. On his
death-bed Runjeet was almost persuaded to
atone for his many sins by donating it to the
famous shrine of Juggernaut. but he finally /,
concluded to risk the chances OF hereafter
without this costly passport to heaven; and
so, in 1849, when the Punjab was annexed to
British India, the Koh-i-noor was among the
assets of the province, and went with the
rest into the hands of the British authori-
ties. AT one of the early meetings of the
board of commissioners, of which Henry
Lawrence was president and John Lawrence
a member, the precious piece of property
was formally made over to the Punjab gov
eminent, and placed in charge OF Jams
Larens," as the natives called HIM. 1t was
in a little box, wrapped up in numerous
folds of cloth; and John Lawrence, who
never wore a pin or ring in his life, and bad
a hearty contempt for %jewelry, put it in his
vest pocket and went on with the business
of the meeting. When he dressed for dinner
he threw his waistcoat aside, forgetting all
about its contents, and so the matter passed
entirely from his mind. Some six weeks
afterward a message was received from the
Governor-general to the effect that the
Queen had ordered the diamond
to be forwarded to her at once, and
req Nesting its immediate to the
headquarters at Calcutta. Henry Lawrence
spoke of the note to the board, and John said,
Send it at once" why, you've got it!'
replied Henry. and then ali the circum-
stances flashed upon the careless custodian.
With characteristic GOODNESS he betrayed DO
emotion, merely remarking: "Oh, yes, OF
course. / forgot about it." But in telling
the story at a later day he confessed he had
said to himself, "Well, this is the worst
trouble l ever yet got into" As soon as he
could do so without attracting special atten-
ton, he left the council chamber, went to
his private room, called for his old native
servant, and said to him: Have you got a
small box that was in my waistcoat pocket
some time ago?'' Eyes, Sahib,' was
the answer; Il found the dibbia 1.-THE
native word for it, and put it
in one of your boxes" Bring
it here" said Lawrence. The servant went
to a dilapidated tin box and took out the
dibbia. "Open it, and see what is inside"
The man opened the hunbles casket that
ever held the priceless gem, and, removing
one after another of the envelopes of rag,
said, when he lifted the last There is moth
ing here, Sahib, but a bit OF glass" The bit
of glass" was eagerly seized and quickly
given to the more careful guardianship OF
the board.
The Koh-i-noor, when Tavernier saw it in
1865, was in the shape of a half egg and
weighed $50 carats, having been reduced by
unskillful cutting from 1888 carats-itS
original weight. If Tavernier's figures are
correct it must have been reduced again, for
when shown at the great exhibition in
London in 1851, it weighed 1856 ZIG carats.
1t mas since been recut-very badly, in the
opinion of experts-is now IN the rose form,
and weighs only 106 1-16 carats. The lower
side is fiat, corresponding to what is called a
cleavage plane" and the supposition is that
the Koh-i-nor and the Russian Orloff dia-
mond are portions of the original stone once
belonging to the great mogul, while a stone
of 1872 carats obtained by Abbas Mira at the
storming of Coocha, in Khorassan, in 1882,
may be a third fragment. The Coocha stone.
it is said, was long used by & peasant as a
would make a diamond very nearly the
shape and size of that described by Taver-
nier, and the Mountain of Light" would
then much better deserve its name than 10
does now.