him."
Tavernier, who makes no further reference to this diamond, adds that
the throne was begun by Tamerlane, and finished by Shah Jehan, and that
it was valued at seventy lacs of rupees (equal to £700,000 sterling), "
qui sont cent soixante millions, 500,000 livres de nostre monnoye."
There is every reason to doubt the accuracy of Tavernier's statement,
at all events as to the commencement of the Peacock Throne. Tamerlane
is probably an error for Baber or Humayun, and the point raises some
interesting if not melancholy, reflections.
About
the year 1398, Tamerlane (known as the " Firebrand of the Universe,")
crossed the Indus in his raid from Tartary to the luxurious district
of Delhi, and on his course of indiscriminate plunder and slaughter,
became so hampered with captives taken on his march, that he
slaughtered in cold blood 100,000 of them. He ravaged Delhi, set fire
to its magnificent public buildings and the dwellings of its
inhabitants, and inaugurated a scene of indescribable massacre and
pillage, by acts of besotted truculence. Then having secured untold
wealth, and wasted more than he could take away, he returned to his
Tartar capital, a monster among bandits, never more to visit the scenes
of his horrible exploits. His inroad upon India was measured by a few
days only. He constructed nothing but piles of unburied men, women, and
children, and he wrote nothing but a legend of blood and barbarous
outrage.
Very
general as is the belief in the one Peacock Throne out of the seven
Imperial seats, covered all over with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, or
pearls, it
