388 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Shah Eukh to cease." He died, however, soon afterwards from his 

 injuries. 



General Cunningham,^ in some remarks on the Koh-i-nur and 

 Mogul diamonds, refers to a great ruhy with Shah Jahan's name upon 

 it. He gives no reference to the source from which he quotes the 

 statement, merely pointing out that the ruby was not noticed by Taver- 

 nier ; but as his suggestion is that Tavernier mistook the histories of 

 two stones, one being the Great Mogul diamond, it seems possible that 

 " ruby" is a slip for diamond, and that the diamond with Shah Jahan's 

 name, to which reference is made on a subsequent page, was really in- 

 tended in the passage. However, he may have referred to the rubv 

 set in the throne which was presented to Jahangir by Shah Abbas I., 

 and also bore Shah Jahan's name, as stated above. 



In the year 1813 Eanjit Singh forced Shah Shnja, then a suppliant 

 for his aid and protection, to deliver up to him the Koh-i-nur ; and 

 he also, it is said, took from him many other precious stones and other 

 treasures, and bought up some which the Shah liad been forced to 

 dispose of to merchants in Amritsar. It is certain that he acquired, 

 either by this means or otherwise, several of the jewels which had 

 been taken from Delhi to Persia by Nadir Shah. Among the stones in 

 Kanjit Singh's possession was an oriental topaz, possibly the one 

 described by Tavernier as belonging to Aurangzeb. Murray,^ on what 

 authority is not recorded, states that Ranjit had paid 20,000 rupees 

 for it. The same author mentions that llanjit possessed a ruby of con- 

 siderable size with the names of several kings engraved upon it, in- 

 cluding those of Aurangzeb and Ahmad Shah. Another account of 

 this ruby, which is said to have considerably exceeded two tolas 

 (= Say, about 120 carats) in weight, is given in a manuscript history 

 of Kashmir and the countries adjacent by Abdul Qadir of Benares, 

 1830. According to him the names of five emperors were engraved 

 upon it.^ 



Lastly, Baron Von Hugel* gives Ihe following account, which iden- 

 tifies it with the stone set by Shah Jahan in the peacock throne. His 

 quotation from Dow (see ante, p. 835) has suffered in the translation, 

 first into German, and then back again into English : — " A pommel of 



> "Arch. Survey of India Eep.," vol. ii., 1871, p. 390. 



* " A Memoir on the Diamond," 1839, p. 71. 



* See Prinsep, "Oriental Accounts of the Precious Minerals," Journ. A. S. 

 Bengal, vol. i., 1832, p. 360. 



* " Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab," London, 1845, p. 303. 



