The article is only a brief summary that cannot do justice to the incredible story of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. I have been doing some research on it, and IMO the most modern and accurate take is the book by Anand and Dalrymple [1].
The following is an excerpt from a review of the book, written by Maya Jassanoff. The book is also very engagingly written. Highly recommend.
"If Koh-i-Noor sounds like a magical history tour, that’s less because of the stone’s putative properties than because – as the authors so pervasively recognise – the history of imperial power is always at base a history of violence. This is no book for the squeamish. There are noses rotted by disease, eyes punctured with hot needles, live cremations, slow poisoning and a torture victim crowned in molten lead."
[1] Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond, by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Bloomsbury, 2017
I was friends with two western reared Indians whose family in India had a fabulous giant green emerald that their ancestors wore as they rode on horseback from village to village that they owned to show their leadership.
They still have what they say is the original - I was at a giant family wedding (thousands of people) where the groom wore it. However I assume they sold off the real one years ago because the family is in decline. They've sold off all of their land except one area near Hyderabad and when I visited them last they were in the process of selling even that. It only took three generations to lose it all.
The article is only a brief summary that cannot do justice to the incredible story of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. I have been doing some research on it, and IMO the most modern and accurate take is the book by Anand and Dalrymple [1].
The following is an excerpt from a review of the book, written by Maya Jassanoff. The book is also very engagingly written. Highly recommend.
"If Koh-i-Noor sounds like a magical history tour, that’s less because of the stone’s putative properties than because – as the authors so pervasively recognise – the history of imperial power is always at base a history of violence. This is no book for the squeamish. There are noses rotted by disease, eyes punctured with hot needles, live cremations, slow poisoning and a torture victim crowned in molten lead."
[1] Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond, by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Bloomsbury, 2017
https://williamdalrymple.com/books/kohinoor-the-story-of-the...
I was friends with two western reared Indians whose family in India had a fabulous giant green emerald that their ancestors wore as they rode on horseback from village to village that they owned to show their leadership.
They still have what they say is the original - I was at a giant family wedding (thousands of people) where the groom wore it. However I assume they sold off the real one years ago because the family is in decline. They've sold off all of their land except one area near Hyderabad and when I visited them last they were in the process of selling even that. It only took three generations to lose it all.
Shameless plug... The Koh-I-Noor has an important cameo on my science fiction narrative game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3040110/Outsider/
(on sale now :))