20. The Pitt Diamond and the Eyes of Jagannath, Puri. 
By Rev. H. Hostey, S.J. 
In a previous paper under this title (J.A.8.B., 1912, 
pp. 133-144) we showed that there was no evidence to prove 
that the Pitt Diamond was stolen from Jagannath’s statue at 
Puri. We found that the theft was attributed to a variety of 
persons: to an Englishman, to a Frenchman, to a Portuguese, 
or to a jeweller belonging to no particular nationality. We were 
disappointed at the time in meeting with no variant of the 
Dutch burglar. 
The Dutch, however, were not above suspicion. We have 
w come across a text in which a Dutchman is charged with 
the theft. It would seem that the caiiead of the temple 
knew how to modify their story, so as to suit the national 
antipathies of their European inquirers. In this case, they 
told the story to a Frenchman, Anquetil du Perron, who was at 
Puri on June 6, 1757. Shortly, before, he had been at Chander- 
had plucked out a precious stone from one of the eyes of the 
ne while the Chandernagorians boasted in 1711 that a French- 
n had done it, the precious stone being then a ruby. For 
08 reasons, Anquetil du Perron discredits the story alto- 
gether. 
‘**T entered Jagrenat,’’ he writes, ‘‘ by the street leading 
Brahmans to let me in: [ had to be satisfied with examining 
the outside of the precincts . 
‘*The theft of the ruby, ‘which formed one of the eyes of 
the statue of Jagrenat, was confirmed to me: but I was told 
that the culprit was the Chief of a small Dutch Factory. The 
other eye, it is said, consists of a big carbuncle. I should 
think, however, that those phage stones and the immense 
treasures said to be contained in the Temple of Jagrenat are of 
the nature of the Pagoda [idol] ee massive gold and forty-two feet 
high, which l’Abbé de Choisy saw at Siam (Voyage de Siam, 
p. 28 eu The Rajahs and Brahmans of Fupenis are too greedy 
to set in wood or stone precious ornaments which they could 
easily replace, oe the sake of the people, by mere gilt, or bits 
of glass, or false rubies placed in the proper light.’’ 
1 Cf. AnquEeri, pu PERRON, Zend-Avesta, Tome I, Pt I, Paris, 
1771, p. lxxxii, 
