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| A drawing of the original, uncut pride of India |
The Kohinoor Diamond was one of the most coveted objects in
Indian history, its romance and splendour unsurpassed, its form hidden in the
mist of swirling tales. The Mountain Of Light by Indu Sundaresan is a history
of the path traced by the 186-carat diamond all the way to the crown jewels in
England. This is a true historical account, rendered fascinatingly by
Sundaresan, who explains in the Afterword what parts of the book are based on
real episodes and which ones are the embellishments of her imagination.
The first recorded account of the diamond comes from Mughal
Emperor Babur, who received the stone from an Indian Raja. From there it moved
to Persia and Afghanistan, where the name Koh-i-noor was bestowed upon it by
Nadir Shah. Our story begins with Shah Shuja, deposed King of Persia, in a
wrestling match with his companion Ibrahim, in the Shalimar Gardens, where they
are living as “guests” of Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Punjab. Ranjit Singh has
been promised the Kohinoor by Wafa Begam, wife of Shah Shuja, in return for the
Shah’s freedom from imprisonment in Kashmir. How Ranjit Singh extracts the
diamond from this woman of supreme intelligence is a tale that immediately
charms the reader into the story. Ranjit Singh is the man who breaks the curse
of the Kohinoor—that only a woman could safely possess it; no man could hold it
and keep his kingdom. This man kept the Kohinoor for thirty years, and kept the
British at bay, too. With his death came the annexation and the slow movement
of the Mountain across the seas to another woman: the Queen of England.
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| The Kohinoor, after being recut in Amsterdam |
From the first page, Sundaresan transports you far back in time,
to fountains in pools with the base strewn with jasper, agate and carnelian
“which created a glitter of colours under the water”, a minister with a set of
false teeth made from ivory after he lost his own teeth in an attack, tent
poles studded with rubies and emeralds and the Koh-i-noor itself—the stone that
could feed the entire world for a day.
Sundaresan’s writing gives you the feel of watching an epic
movie, so visual is its quality. From the British encampment fashioned in the
style of Ain-e-Akbari to the scene of
the Governor General and his sister stuck on an elephant that refuses to budge
from the river even as it sprays them with water, every line flows fluidly. The
emotions are refined with the same elegant hand, every chapter carrying a different
set of characters and a different tug at the heart. In the latter half, the
book changes scene and moves to England, with Dalip Singh, Ranjit’s son—who is in
the care of the Logins and has accepted Christianity, being showered with a
multitude of titles and favours by the Queen. In the end, though, rejected as a
suitor for an English girl, he bitterly realizes that even though he’s Indian royalty,
he’s “not good enough for a young British woman of little fortune and no
pretensions to nobility.”
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| In the crown of the Queen of England |
Although Sundaresan does not pepper the book with
patriotism, objectively showing both sides, the darkness of colonialism and its
deceitfulness is on full display. The Kohinoor, which is the connecting thread
of the various fragments, reflects the fortunes of India’s royalty. At the very
end, the Queen has the diamond recut and when Dalip holds it again, it’s been reduced
to 106 carats from 186. “It is weightless upon my hand, its heft cut away…this
is not a mountain anymore but a mere bump in the horizon…it isn’t the Kohinoor
diamond…” So too, of course, the grand royals of India faded into oblivion, devoured
by the British empire.
This book is a splendid work of art, a grave tale told with
much romance and subtle meaning. You would take a long time to come back to
reality.
1 comment:
thanks shearing this zahra naqvi i would love to come again on your blog can u explane this screening for treated diamonds one
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