I860.] on Diamonds. 233 



little weight, as compared not only with European standards of weight, 

 but also with those of India. It is possible that he took the pearl rati 

 of three troy grains for his basis, and confounded it with the other 

 varieties of this variable unit of comparison. 



The speaker then noticed Tavernier's account of the diamond he 

 saw in the possession of Aurungzebe, of which he gives the weight as 

 319i ratis; and the apparent inconsistencies of his narrative, with the 

 idea of that diamond being the 320-rati diamond of Baber, were 

 sought to be explained from the contemporary history as given by the 

 translator of Ferishta, and by Bernier, no less than by Tavernier 

 himself. It seemed probable at least, that the old crown jewel of the 

 sovereigns of Delhi, and the talisman of Indian empire, was then in 

 the possession of Aurungzebe, and was seen as such by the French 

 traveller ; but that he has mistaken the history of that stone, and con- 

 founded it with that of another which had been found but a few years 

 before, and had been acquired by Shah Jehaun. Shah Jehaun was 

 then a state prisoner, and his reigning son let him retain his jewels in 

 his captivity. Among these would doubtless have been the diamond 

 Tavernier alludes to, and which had been in fact no crown jewel, but 

 a private possession acquired by Shah Jehaun himself. 



Tavernier indeed gave a drawing of the diamond ; but his represent- 

 ation is a most rude one, and is as much like the Koh-i-Nur seen from 

 one end, as it can be said to be like any large diamond known to exist 

 now; while his description, utterly at variance with his drawing, 

 exceedingly well characterises[the Koh-i-Nur, even in its peculiarities. 



The history of this diamond is one long romance from then till 

 now ; but it is well authenticated at every step, as history seems never 

 to have lost sight of this stone of fate, from the days when Ala-ud-din 

 took it from the Rajahs of Malwah five centuries and a half ago, to the 

 day when it became a crown jewel of England ; while tradition carries 

 back its existence in the memory of India to the half mythic hero 

 Bihramojeet, Rajah of Usjein and Malwa, 57 b.c. ; and a still wilder 

 legend would fain recognise in it a diamond recorded as worn by 

 Kama, Rajah of Anga, who fell in the " great war," and first dis- 

 covered near Masulipatam in the bed of the Godaveri, 5000 years 

 ago. 



[N. S.-M.] 



