History About the Taj-E-Mah Diamond and Mining Methods of India

THE TAJ-E-MAH.

The Diamond Works of Sumbhulpore--Mining Under Difficulties--Diamond Seekers at Work--A Famous Region--Robbed and Exiled--A Monarch on the Rack--The Royal Torturer Assassinated--A Gorgeous Bracelet--Royal Gems--Uncivilized Persia--A Strange Story--The Philosophic Content of a Blinded King.

This gem is acknowledged to be of Indian origin, and has the character of a Godavery stone. It is like its twin the Darya-i-Nur, of first water, and is claimed by the diamond finders as a Mahanuddy which in Sanscrit is the synonym of "great river," and is appropriated to the stream which runs from west to east and falls into the Bay of Bengal.

The diamond works of Sumbhulpore are not rich in large first class diamonds, but they have been remarkable for their clear water. The reason of the ill success attending the working of these diamantiferous fields is that in the north the jungle, in addition to being pestiferous, is the haunt of the tiger and the leopard. Natives also affirm that it is the only spot in India where the lion has been found. It is rich in gold and produces gems of the first water. The petty chiefs have always striven to keep the knowledge of this unpeopled mining district to themselves fearing alike the Mahratta and Mohammedan interference. They have generally taken quiet possession of such produce as was washed down the torrent into the larger affluents. In 1818 this province came into the British possession, but the British workmen stationed at Sumbhulpore fell victims to the insalubrity of the country. The part of the river Mahanuddy in which diamonds were found reaches from Chundepore where the Maund joins the main stream to Sohnpore where the Mahanuddy makes a sudden bend to the north producing an extensive mud bank on the northern shore, making altogether a course of 120 miles. Throughout this extent the diamond searchers ply their unwholesome trade from the time when the rains cease to their periodical return. These labourers are of two tribes called Jhara and Tora. The former are said to be Gonds, an aboriginal race, and the latter a mixed people. When the rain has ceased the Jhara and Tora searchers repair to the upper Mahanuddy, with their wives and children, and explore the beds, especially the alluvial deposits. The principal tool which they employ is a sharp pickaxe. All the detritus is well washed. The hard stony matter is looked at carefully by the women. It is put thinly on planks and exposed to the glare of the sun, which shows up the character of the calcareous "detrit." Every particle of red ochrey clay coloured by oxide of iron, is passed through the fingers and thumb, and examined minutely, as this is richest in diamonds. But concealment of the stones was and perhaps is very easy and common. In 1818, the year of the dispersement of the Pindaries and not less thieving masters, the Mahrattas, the native searchers found by some experiments that the white man's agent valued fairly some fine stones brought for his inspection, and the agent very shortly after had a stone of 81 carats (a Brahmin) brought to him at Sumbhulpore, which he valued at pound 500. The names given to the various stones are classed into four divisions--1st. Brahmins; 2nd, Kshatrias; 3rd, Vaisyas; and 4th, Sudras.

The native searchers are allowed sixteen villages rent free, and all the gold they find they may appropriate for their own use. The Ranee, Rullum Coher, in the beginning of this century, received one diamond of 72 carats, and a second, or its nominal twin, of 77 carats, with many equally clear but smaller gems. In 1809 a gem of 168 carats was discovered, and found a place in her treasury. The repute of the possession of these gems got abroad, and Holkar's or Scindia's Mahratta troops swooped down upon her territory, robbed her of her gems, and drove her into exile. The stones were supposed to have been deposited in the stronghold of Asseeghur, and were taken by the British in the early spring of 1819, at the breaking up of the Mahratta confederacy. The "Taj-e-Mah" presented so much the character of the gems in question, although exceeding them in size and weight, that the birth place of the stone is attributed to the upper Mahanadi or Mahanuddy. It found its way into the hands of Mir Jumna, the diamond merchant, and the Shah of Persia obtained it either directly or indirectly from his hands as will be shown in the historic sketch which follows:--

The "Taj-e-Mah" is perhaps the very finest gem in the Persian collection. But notwithstanding its Persian title, its Indian origin is betrayed by its shape, for it is skilfully cut in the form of a rose diamond, the style almost universally adopted in Hindoostan. From that country it was brought away with a vast quantity of other treasures, variously estimated at from pound 30,000,000 to pound 60,000,000 by the Perso-Tartar conqueror, Nadir Shah, in 1739. After his death in 1747 it was rescued from the pillage of his effects which then took place, and thus came into the possession of his unfortunate successor, Shah Rokh. When this feeble ruler fell into the power of the usurper, Aga Mohammed, he clung with incredible tenacity to the glittering treasures which had been saved from the wreck of his father's property. For a long time he endured with the constancy of a martyr the cruel treatment and horrible tortures to which the usurper subjected him. Exposed alternately to the pains of hunger and thirst, heat and cold, racked, torn with red hot pincers, and at last deprived of his eyes by the usual Persian process of cold steel, his firmness gradually gave way, and he yielded up the costly gems one by one, with each successive application of the rack or pincers, of burning heat and biting cold.

By this means Aga Mohammed succeeded at length in getting possession of the bulk of the crown jewels, including both the "Taj-e-Mah" and the "Darya-i-Nur." But the usurper proved no exception to the evil destiny usually attending the possession of these large diamonds. He was himself soon afterwards assassinated by the emissaries of the rival faction at that time contending for the throne of the "king of kings." After his death the murderers handed over all his jewels to Sadek Khan Shekaki, who had been one of his leading generals, but who was suspected of having been privy to the murder. Since then the "Taj-e-Mah" and "Darya-i-Nur" have remained in the possession of the Persian monarchs, and are now set in a pair of magnificent bracelets, which are reputed to be worth about a million sterling.

Our authority for this statement, and in fact, for nearly all our historical notes, regarding both the "Taj-e-Mah" and "Darya-i-Nur," is Sir John Malcolm, who visited Persia in an official capacity early in the present century, and who, at an interview with the Shah in Teheran, was allowed to inspect the crown regalia. He thus relates the incident in his Sketches of Persia, published anonymously, 1827:--"The king, at this visit, appeared in great good humour with the Elchi, and gratified the latter by shewing him his richest jewels, amongst which was the 'Sea of Light,' which is deemed one of the purest and most valuable diamonds in the world. Many of the others are surprisingly splendid." Sir John Malcolm adds, 'The 'Darya-i-Nur,' or 'Sea of Light' weighs 186 carats, and is considered to be the diamond of the finest lustre in the world. The 'Taj-e-Mah,' or 'Crown of the Moon,' is also a splendid diamond. It weighs 146 carats. These two are the principal in a pair of bracelets, valued at near a million sterling. Those in the crown are also of extraordinary size and value."

In our account of the "Koh-i-Nur" allusion was made to the horrible practice of gouging out the eyes of political opponents, until recently so prevalent both in Persia and Afghanistan. The indifference with which these frightful cruelties came to be regarded, even by the victims themselves, is well illustrated by the following graphic story of Riza Kuli Khan, related by Sir John Malcolm in the work just quoted.

"Riza Kuli Khan, the governor of Kazerun, came to pay the Elchi a visit. This old nobleman had a silk band over his eye-sockets, having had his eyes put out during the late contest between the Zend and Kajar families for the throne of Persia. He began, soon after he was seated, to relate his misfortunes, and the tears actually came to my eyes, at the thoughts of the old man's sufferings, when judge of my surprise to find it was to entertain, not to distress us, he was giving this narration, and that, in spite of the revolting subject, I was compelled to smile at the tale, which in any country except Persia, would have been deemed a subject for a tragedy. But as poisons may by use become aliment, so misfortunes, however dreadful, when they are of daily occurrence, appear like common events of life. But it was the manner and feelings of the narrator that, in this instance, gave the comic effect to the tragedy of which he was the hero.