Vol. VIII, No. 4.] The Pitt Diamond. 139 
[V.8.] 
and sacred treasury of Jagannath was looted by the covetous 
Afghans about 1591.!_ The following entry in a private diary 
entitled Tabcirat-ul Nazirin, kept by a Bilgrami Sayyid named 
Sayyid Muhammad, son of Mir Alwal Jalal, is more to our 
pose. It was communicated by Prof. Blochmann to Rajen- 
dralala Mitra, the author of The Antiquities of Orissa (Cal- 
cutta, 1880, II, p. 112). 
‘©On the 24th Shawwal of this year (4-H. 1129) died 
Mir Sayyid Mahmid of Bilgram. He was a man held in great 
respect, and had served under Nawab Ikram in Orissa. When 
Aurangzib had ‘sent orders to the Nawab to destroy the temple 
of Jagannatha, Raja Durap Singh Deo, who had the temple 
under him, asked the Mir to introduce him to the Nawab. 
The Raja promised to break up the temple, and send the big 
idol to the Emperor. He actually did break the statue of Rakas, 
which stood over the entrance of the temple,. and also two 
battlements over the door. The idol, which was made of 
sandal wood, and which had two valuable jewels set in the eyes, 
able for their brilliancy would have been selected for the 
idol of Jagannath. Besides, if the Pitt Diamond, second only 
1 Cf. Hist. of Bengal, London, 1813, p. 184. 
2 We may perhaps recall what Tavernier ( Ball’s Edn., I, 290) says 
of a large number of idols of gold and silver taken by Mir Jumla from a 
pagoda near Gandikot in 1652. Six were of copper, three of which were 
seated on their heels, and three others were about 10 feet high. These six 
Maillé, the Frenchman, could not manage to melt down to make guns of. 
India, VII, 184, 188. Cartloads of Hindd idols from Jodhpur were 
brought to Aurangzib in 1679, and some were placed beneath the steps of 
the great mosque ( Delhi?) to be trampled under foot. 
