120 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
Aurung-zeb
"set out immediately for Agra, where Begum Sahel received him with
distinguished honour. On arriving at the women's apartments the
princess presented him with a large golden basin full of precious
stones, her own jewels and those which belonged to Shah Jehan." The
princess here referred to was Jihanira, the too well-beloved daughter
of Shah Jehan, who remained with him to the last, and who had used her
influence to prevent him from destroying his jewels rather than
surrender them to Aurung-zeb, as mentioned in our account of the "Great
Mogul." It is uncertain whether Baber's diamond was one of those
contained in the golden basin, or whether it had already been given to
Aurung-zeb during his father's lifetime. The former supposition seems
to be the most probable ; for amongst Aurung-zeb's treasures exhibited
to Tavernier, November 3, 1665, there was only one diamond of great
size—the " Mogul"—and Shah Jehan, already afflicted by a fatal disease,
died in the following February. But the point is of little consequence,
as in any case the stone remained in the possession of the Mogul
dynasty until Nadir Shah's invasion of India, during the reign of
Mohammed Shah, in 1739.
In
our account of the "Orloff," reference has already been made to
Whittaker's statement that Aurung-zeb made use of the " Koh-i-Nur " as
one of the eyes of the peacock, adorning his " Peacock Throne," and
that Nadir carried off and broke up this throne, thus gaining
possession of the famous gem. But according to another and apparently a
more trustworthy account, when he seized on the Delhi treasury this
stone, which
