The Birth and Legend of the Koh-I-noor

And so it was written in ancient scripture that the Syamantaka came down from heaven in a time beyond memory, and that this was the same jewel that hung about the neck of the sun god to give him his brilliance. But he gave it to Ushas, daughter of the dawn, and from her it passed on to the Lord Krishna himself, who spoke unto the world, telling that the gem would henceforth belong to the kingdom of men.

And so Lord Krishna said that only those without stain might wear it, the virtuous and the pure in spirit, and that whatsoever impure men took it would surely die. Lord Krishna gave the perfect jewel to Akura, and Akura put it on a cord about his neck that it might garland him with light. Thus the stone remained in the south until the days of the fathers' fathers' time, when the seed of Tamerlane and of Ghengis Khan was united, and the power of the world moved north.

And so it came to pass that this peerless diamond was given to Babur, the Founder, and he took it to himself with an oath that it would be a sign of unity and power and of eternity. and all at Delhi who heard the oath drew in their breath and said it was rare as unity, clear as power and hard as eternity, and they called it Koh-I-noor - the Mountain of light.

And so the matchless stone passed undiminished and in this time all the world bowed down before the Great Moghul and paid tribute to his power, even the white man who came to Hindustan in their tall ships, and it seemed that the radiant power of the Peacock Throne would shine for ten thousand years. But, alas! The radiance dimmed, and the time of the diamond's passing was at hand.

And so on the night when Nadir Shah, the Persian butcher, whose name be forever spat upon, brought the armies of the North to stand before the walls of Delhi, it was decided that the jewel should be cursed afresh, that the words of the Lord Krishna should be renewed strongly, that the butcher might take the jewel and die in torment. So it was that the diamond diamond was brought to a holy Brahmin who had been blinded by the butcher. But the Brahmin stumbled as he invoked the words, and the curse was altered so that any man, pure or impure, should die in torment if he possessed the stone, and that henceforth it should leave a wake of blood.

The next day, ruin came upon the land of the Moghuls, and the butcher raged through the city of Delhi, and all there fled or were blinded or were burned alive, and the peacock throne was carried off to Persia. But the Koh-I-noor was hidden in a body-servant's turban and smuggled into the south in great secrecy, to the lands of the Nizam, it's ancient home. And a lesser stone, the Darya-I-noor, the ocean of light, was taken by the butcher in its stead, and Nadir Shah knew not the deception all the days of his life.

At this time the Nizam of the South was Asaf Jah, a blessing be upon his name, a great and cunning lord who even then had ruled the people of the South for many long years. And Asaf Jah had at his scepter a mighty sword, the talwar-I-jang, the sword of war, the sword of Islam. And those among his subjects that were Muslims saw the sword and drew in their breath for they knew of its power, and these devout knew they must obey its possessor in all earthly matters. Asaf Jah consulted his advisers and his astrologers and those who were wise said he must throw the stone into the sea, but those who were corrupt said he must fix the diamond to the hilt of his sword that both Hindu and Muslim would know him as lord.

Bet Asaf Jah, the cunning man, the clever man, knew of the curse that any man who possessed the Koh-I-noor would die in torment, and thus he drew aside the body-servant and bade him give the gem to his foremost wife, and when this was done the body-servants limbs were struck off one by one, for did not the curse apply to him also? And therefore was it not inevitable that his death was by lingering? And when this was done, Asaf Jah was content for he knew that all must now believe his wife's husband was lord, but that she being no man at all, would nor die in torment....