A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar)

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for one see little reason for doubt. Nuniz distinctly states (p. 389) that the diamond mines, in their day the richest in the world, were farmed out on condition that all stones above twenty mangellins in weight - about twenty-five carats - were sent to the Raya for his personal use, and there must

Kurnool and Anantapur countries, notably at Vajra Karur. Generically these a

om whence they are digged, whereof the King of Bisnagar doth reape great profitte; for he causeth them to be straightly watched, and hath farmed them out wi

ld Rocke, from whence come the best diamonds and are sold for the greatest price.... Some

a jewel which the Raya had affixed to the base of the plume on his horse's head-dress. Garcia da Orta, who was in India in 1534, says that at Vijayanagar a diamond had been seen as large as a

as "Babar's," "the Mogul's," "Pitt's," "the KOH-I-NUR," and others,

taken at Vijayanagar in A.D. 1565, whereas Sultan Babar's was received by his son Humayun at Agra in 1

e? Probably not. If we had been told that the "hen's egg," when found in the sack of Vijayanagar, had been cut, the proof CONTRA wo

pur in 1565, and it is not likely to have found its way, stil

the hands of his grandson, Shah Rukh. Four years later Shah Rukh gave it to Ahmad Shah Durani of Kabul, and by him it was bequeathed to his son Taimur. In 1793 it passed by descent to his son Shah Zaman, who was blinded and deposed by his brother Muhammad; but he retained possession of the stone in his prison, and in 1795 it became the property of his brother Sultan Shuja. In 1809, after Shuja became king of Kabul, Elphinstone saw the diamond in his bracelet at Peshawur. In 1812, Shuja, being dethroned by Muhammad, fled to Lahore, where he was detained as a quasi-prisoner by Ranjit Singh, the ruler of the Panjab. In 1

y of the "hen's egg" diamond after its ac

at Delhi,[652] but this had been pierced. "I have seene one with the great MOGOR as bigge as a Hen's egge, and of that ve