Koh-I-Noor -Mountain of Light?

Satwinder Kaur

Abstract: Kohinoor diamond one of the largest diamonds in the world. The current name of the diamond, Koh-I-Noor is in Persian and means ?Mountain of Light?. The Kohinoor diamond was first mentioned in 1306 when it was taken from a Rajah of Malwa, whose family had held the diamond for centuries. It was described as weighing 186 carats and was an oval cut white diamond - the shape and size of a small hen's egg. The name Kohinoor was first used by Nadir Shah in 1739. There is a so-called curse on the Kohinoor that affects males who wear it (but females are unaffected). Since being in the possession of Queen Victoria, only women wore the diamond. In 1526 the Mogul ruler Babur mentions the diamond in his writings, Baburnama. The diamond was gifted to him by the sultan Ibrahim Lodhi. He was the one who described the diamond's value equal to half-day production costs of the world. In 1849, after the conquest of the Punjab by the British forces, the properties of the Sikh Empire were confiscated. The Koh-I-Noor was transfer to the treasury of the British East India Company in Lahore. The Properties of Sikh empire were taken as war compensations. Even one line of the Treaty of Lahore was dedicated to the fate of the Koh-i-noor. In 1937, Koh-i-noor was transferred to the crown made for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, based on Queen Victoria's regal circlet and is set in a Maltese cross at the front of the crown.

Keywords: Kohinoor, Diamond, Mountain of Light, Queen, Crown, Baburnama

Edition: Volume 3 Issue 8, August 2014,

Pages: 729 - 732