India wants its crown jewel: The Kohinoor
Kohinoor diamond at the time it was found, was said to weigh 793 carats, but through some incredibly ham-fisted cutting and polishing by a jeweller named Borgio it was reduced to 186 carats. This further reduced it from 186 carats to its present size of just less than 106 caratsIt is believed that the Kohinoor carries with it a curse and only when in the possession of a woman will the curse not work.
The Mughal Empire was the longest foreign rule which lasted for more than three centuries in India and can be considered one of the largest centralised in pre modern history. The glorious rule came to an end with Aurangzeb's death who was a great ruler and set example by not using the royal treasury which he believed belonged to the common man. In fact, he wrote holy quran for his living which many of us may not be aware of(he used to write and sell) . His wife used to weave skull caps to support his earning. He left seventeen legitimate claimants to the throne that included not only his sons but also his grandsons and great grandsons with his death. Prince Muazzam assumed the title Bahadurshah I after killing his brother Prince Azam Shah and became the king. After the death of bahadurshah I a civil war broke out his son Jahandar Shah, emerged victorious in it with the support of Zulfiqar Khan who was the most powerful noble of the time. In Deccan Saiyid Husain Ali Khan colluded with the Marathas and attacked Delhi using trickery and intrigue seized Farrukhsiyar in the Red Fort. The emperor was blinded and caged and later poisoned as well as stabbed to death. However, prior to his death, Farrukhsiyar had the dubious distinction of aiding the British to have a firm foothold in India, by signing the much-coveted farman an imperial directive that would seal the future of British takeover of India.(excerpts from wikipedia)Marathas were now constantly attacking Delhi. Nadir Shah (A Timur descendant) who had already usurped the throne in Persia and seized Kabul and Kandhar and was invited by Muhammad Shah(only because he was incompetent to fight him due to lack of resources ). as a guest to Delhi. Nadir Shah who was in Delhi now a royal guest , ordered a general massacre of Delhi citizens and looted every bit of wealth they could extort out of the royalty as well as Delhi’s citizens and departed with millions worth of gold, jewellry and coins. Even the emperor’s bejewelled peacock throne made during Shah Jahan's reign was packed on elephants and carried away to Persia. Another prize, the Koh-I-nur diamond (traditionally known as Madnayak or king of Jewels before being named renamed Kohinoor in 18th century by Ahmad Shah Abdali who started his incursions into Delhi and looted the capital In a series of attacks , he also cleaned out Mathura, Kashmir and cities in Punjab). From the east the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and occupied the state of Bengal.The Kōh-i Nūr which means "Mountain of Light" in Persian, Koh-i-Nur, is a 105 carat (21.6 g) diamond (in its most recent cut) that was once the largest known diamond in the world was most recently seized by the East India Company and became part of the British Crown Jewels when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877.
