purest water, with but one little crack and flaw ; the other was an irregular ellipse, very flat, dull and full of flaws." f
Shah
Jehan virtually ceased to reign from about 1657 till his death in 1666.
But Aurung-zeb allowed him to retain possession of the greater part of
his jewellery throughout his imprisonment in Agra. Tavernier tells us
that a few days before his coronation the usurper begged his father to
lend him some of these treasures for the occasion. At this request,
which he took for an insult, and which, under the circumstances, was
certainly somewhat cool, Shah Jehan fell into a paroxysm of rage which
nearly brought him to his end. " In the excess of his anger he asked
several times for a mortar and pestle, saying that he wanted to pound
all his gems and pearls, so that Aurung-zeb might never have any of
them. But his eldest daughter Begum Saheb, who never forsook him,
throwing herself at his feet, prevented him from coming to this
extremity and . . . appeased Shah Jehan more in order to preserve the
