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The Great Mogul
diamond is considered to be the largest diamond in India. Discovered between
1630 and 1650, the rare Mogul diamond was found in in the Kollur
mine on the Kistna. The rough diamond weighed around 793 carats. It takes its
name from its owner, Shah Jehan, fifth in
succession from Baber, founder of the so-called "Mogul" dynasty in
Hindustan.
Until the Koh-i-Nur diamond was brought to Europe in 1850, there
was never any serious doubt about the Great Mogul’s identity but since
that time its very identity has been called in question. While some
authorities continue to regard the two famous stones as distinct, others now
hold that they are really one under two different names. There is, however,
no real foundation for doubting the individual existence of the two. Evidence
to the contrary is as weak as the facts on the other side are strong. The
histories of the stones differ in this remarkable respect, that the story of
the Koh-i-Nur may be said to have no beginning,
while that of the Great Mogul seems, on the other hand, to have no end. The
available data, if duly considered, must satisfy all candid inquirers that
they are undoubtedly two distinct gems, having little in common beyond their
unusual size, and their simultaneous presence for nearly a hundred years in
the Khazana or treasure-house of the Mogul
emperors.
Soon after its
discovery the Great Mogul fell into the possession of the Emir Jemla, who dealt largely in precious stones, a well-known
Persian adventure, who rose to great power in the Court of the Rajah of
Golconda, and whose history is inseparably associated with that of the
"Great Mogul."
Jemla was
the Vizier to the Emperor of Golconda and due to security reasons he fled to
Delhi and took shelter under Shah Jehan, builder of
Taj Mahal. He is supposed
to have carried the most magnificent presents, in the hope of inducing the
Mogul to declare war against the Kings of Golconda and Viziapur,
and against the Portuguese. On this occasion he is supposed to have presented
Shah Jehan with that celebrated diamond which has
been generally deemed unparalleled in size and beauty.
The diamond in
question is strongly supposed to be the Great Mogul itself as it is
impossible that it could have been the Koh-i-Nur;
for that gem had already been in the possession of the Mogul emperors ever
since the time of Baber himself.
It was at a
strange and sanguinary period when the first European saw this remarkable
stone in november 1665, a few years before
the death of "the Grand Monarque," Shah Jehan.
During the 17th
century, the French jewel trader Jean-Sebastien
Tavernier, who had almost spent his life searching rare diamonds, came to
know of this precious gem and named it as a rose-cut diamond in 1665. In his “Six
Voyages” account, Tavernier refers in three places to this gem as the
largest diamond he ever got to see.
The stone was
given a proper shape by the venetian lapidary Hortentio
Borgis, the same jewel cutter who cut the famous Orloff diamond.
Another legend
says that the Great Mogul and the Orloff diamond
would be aswell one gem under two names. Just like
the Koh-i-Nur, the Orloff
does not have any precise beginning but its first appearance in history was
around 1750 in
South India.
The Orloff is supposed to have been cut from the Great Mogul
as the weight between the two stones differs. The Great Mogul weights 280
carats and the Orloff around 180, this is why the
Great Mogul is supposed to have its top removed and is now known as the Orloff which now resides in the Kremlin museum on the
imperial sceptre.
Some people
continue arguing that their forms strongly suggest that the two diamonds are
only one gem, but this theory is yet to be proved.
On the right :
drawings of the Orloff
On
the left: drawing of the Great Mogul
 
 
Presently, the
existence of this rare Mogul diamond is a big question. The current location
of this Great Mogul diamond is unknown. There were a number of
dead mines along the river Kistna. This was the homeground
to a number of rare gems. Few decades earlier, several precious diamonds were
yielded from this place.
The subsequent
history of the Great Mogul from the time it was seen by Tavernier in 1665, remains a blank. Henceforth no distinct reference
anywhere occurs to it, and although we may presume that it continued in the
possession of Aurung-zeb's successors down to the
sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah or perhaps was stolen or even was cut in several
stones in order to escape detection. We have no knowledge of what became of
it on that memorable occasion.
The authorities
are almost unanimous in assuming that the big stone carried off by the
Persian invader, was the Koh-i-Nur. But amongst the
spoils may of course have also been the Great Mogul, though no distinct
mention is made of the fact. Hence some have thought that it is now amongst
the treasures of the Shah of Persia under the name of "Darya-i-Nur," or "Sea of Light ."But some evidences tend to prove that the
Darya-i-Nur is certainly
a different stone.
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, Nāder Shāh, in 1747.
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