156 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
Persian
title,* its Indian origin is betrayed by its shape, for it is skilfully
cut in the form of a rose diamond, the style almost universally adopted
in Hindoostan. From that country it was brought away with a vast
quantity of other treasures, variously estimated at from £30,000,000
to £60,000,000 by the Perso-Tartar conqueror, Nadir Shah, in 1739.
After his death in 1747 it was rescued from the pillage of his effects
which then took place, and thus came into the possession of his
unfortunate successor, Shah Rokh. When this feeble ruler fell into the
power of the usurper, Aga Mohammed, he clung with incredible tenacity
to the glittering treasures which had been saved from the wreck of his
father's property. For a long time he endured with the constancy of a
martyr the cruel treatment and horrible tortures to which the usurper
subjected him. Exposed alternately to the pains of hunger and thirst,
heat and cold, racked, torn with red hot pincers, and at last deprived
of his eyes by the usual Persian process of cold steel, his firmness
gradually gave way, and he yielded up the costly gems one by one, \vith
each successive application of the rack or pincers, of burning heat
and biting cold.
By
this means Aga Mohammed succeeded at length in getting possession of
the bulk of the crown jewels, including both the " Taj-e-Mah " and the
" Darya-i-Nur." But the usurper proved no exception to the evil destiny
usually attending the possession of these large diamonds. He was
himself soon afterwards
