Koh-i-noor.
Weight. 105.6 carat = 21 gms.
Colour: White.
Country. Golconda.India.
First held by: King Shah Jehan.
Now held by: British Crown.
Pandit Nehru said that India does not claim that Koh-i-noor be returned to us.
Ko-hi-noor is the largest diamond ever found in India. It was discovered as a 787-carat rough stone in the Golconda mines in 1650 and subsequently was cut by the Venetian lapidary Hortentio Borgis. The French jewel trader Jean-Baptiste Tavernier described it in 1665 as a high-crowned rose-cut stone with a flaw at the bottom and a small speck within. Its present location is unknown, and some believe that either the Orlov diamond or the Koh-i-noor may have been cut from this stone after its loss following the assassination of its owner, Nader Shah, in 1747.
According to some experts, Sultan 'Ala'-ud-Din Khalji is credited with having taken the jewel in 1304 from the Raja of Malwa, India, whose family had owned it for many generations. Other writers have identified the Koh-i-noor meaning "mountain of light" with the diamond given to the son of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, by the Raja of Gwalior after the battle of Panipat in 1526.
Still others have contended that it came originally from the Kollur mine of the Krishna River and was presented to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1656. Some claim that the stone was cut from the Great Mogul diamond described by the French jewel trader Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1665, but the Koh-i-noor's original lack of fire and shape make that unlikely.
In any case, it most likely formed part of the loot of Nader Shah of Iran when he sacked Delhi in 1739. After his death it fell into the hands of his general, Ahmad Shah, founder of the Durrani dynasty of Afghans.
His descendant Shah Shoja', when a fugitive in India, was forced to surrender the stone to Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler. On the annexation of the Punjab in 1849, the Koh-i-noor was acquired by the British and was placed among the crown jewels of Queen Victoria. It was incorporated as the central stone in the queen's state crown fashioned for use by Queen Elizabeth, consort of George VI, at her coronation in 1937.
The debate in the British media and press provided evidence of the keen interest which the topic arose. People and special interest groups hastened to put pen to paper. Lord Ballatrae, the great-grandson of Lord Dalhousie, submitted his own claim on the grounds that for just over a year his relative had been the stone's owner.
A second person wrote that if the Koh-I-Noor was to be handed back, then the marble statues must be restored to Greece or Lord Elgin, the Isle of Man to Lord Delby and the Channel Islands to France.
He was not sure to whom the Isle of Wight belonged but felt sure there would be a long and acrimonious dispute with the British Isles themselves. A third writer suggested that the solution to the problem was to partition the gem.
An authoritative and thoughtful addition to the debate that raged in the press was in a letter to The Times by Sir Olaf Caroe, a distinguished British administrator who had spent a lifetime's service in the east, including time in the post of Foreign Secretary to the Government of India from 1939 to 1945.
Sir Olaf pointed out that the Koh-I-Noor had been in Mogul possession in Delhi for 213 years, in Afghan possession in Kandahar and Kabul for 66 years and in British possession for 127 years. He remarked that it is true that when it was acquired by the British it was at Lahore, but other and previous claimants also existed. The Moguls in Delhi were Turkish in origin and the rulers in Lahore, by the time the stone came into British hands, were Sikhs. Finally, he said he felt that the word "return" was barely applicable.
Historically, it is difficult to pass judgement on the validity of the various claims. On the other hand, from a gemological aspect, the Indian claim must be the most valid because it was in that country that the Koh-I-Noor was mined. However, this country's claim to the diamond was renounced by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India once said, "Diamonds are for the Emperors and India does not need Emperors."
In 1992 a new HM Stationary Office publication on the British Crown Jewels and regalia gave the revised weight of 105.602 metric carats for the Koh-I-Noor and not the 108.93 metric carat conversion figure previously published. The stone was found to measure 36.00 × 31.90 × 13.04 mm. The stone is set in the Maltese Cross at the front of the crown made for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and because of uncertainty as to the precise weight, the opportunity was taken in 1988 to have the stone removed during the maintenance and cleaning of the crown. It was weighed in the presences of witnesses on a modern certified electronic balance was 105.602.
