Ball — Description oftico large Sjnnel Rubies. 38 1 



its being strung on a chain or suspended as a pendant/ and this means 

 of suspension has been made use of in its present mount as a pendant 

 from a necklace. 



The four engraved names, to which reference has just been made^ 

 are as follows : — 



(1). Alcbar BTialii? 



(2). Shah Ahbar, Jahangir Shah, 1021 (= a.d. 1612). 



(3). Sahib Kiran Sani, 1039 (= A.n. 1629). 



Sahib Kiran Sani signifies Second Lord of the (auspicious) con- 

 junction (of the planets Venus and Jupiter). It was a title assumed 

 by the Emperor Shah Jahan, having been borne first by his ancestor 

 Timur. As we shall see, it was also used by Nadir Shah.^ 



(4). Alamgir Shah 1070 {= a.d. 1659). 



Alamgir, or Lord of the Earth, was the title which Aurangzeb, 

 who reigned from 1658 to 1707, conferred upon himself. In this case 

 the last figure of the date is obscure or was never engraved, only the 

 figures 107 can be read with certainty; but the smallest mark being 

 the dot, for cipher, it has been adopted as the most likely figure to 

 have been either obliterated or perhaps even taken as understood. 



My thanks are due to Professor Mir Aulad Ali for the assistance 

 he has given me in reading these inscriptions. Without his aid I 

 should not have ventured on my own authority to publish them. 



Before proceeding further with an account of this stone it will be 

 convenient to describe another spinel ruby, which my inquiries from 

 Messrs. Hunt and Eoskell have, so to speak, drawn from previous 

 oblivion. Not only was this firm so good as to send me a leaden 

 model of it, which showed some indistinct traces of an inscription, but 

 on the occasion of a visit which I subsequently paid to London they 

 placed in my hands sealing-wax impressions taken from the original, 

 which are perfectly legible and of considerable interest in themselves ; 

 but they possess an additional value from the fact that, about the year 



^ The custom of boring precious stones was common in the East ; it is referred 

 to by Tavernier ; and Manoucbi mentions that Akbar sent some splendid rubies to 

 Goa, on -which he desired to raise money for the expenses of the war in Gujarat ; 

 but, as these rubies were bored, no purchaser could be found for them. 



2 Shahi is the possessive form of Shah. 



^ According to the Tuzuh-i-Jahangiri, translated by W. H. Lowe, Calcutta, 1889, 

 pp. 90, 91, the title was even used occasionally by Jahangir. As Shah Jahan 

 claimed to be the 'second,' and Timur was admittedly the 'first,' Jahangir's use 

 of it must have been ignored by his son. 



