SUMMARY HISTORY OF THE KOH-I-NUR 345
exchange
of turbans took place, the diamond was surrendered, and the Shah
received the assignment of a jagtr in the Punjab for his maintenance,
and a promise of aid in recovering Kabul'.1 This was in 1813
: the Shah then escaped from Lahore to Rajaurl, in the hills, and from
thence to Ludhiana, after suffering great privations.1 Here
he and his brother Shah Zaman were well received by the Honourable East
India Company, and a liberal pension was assigned by the Government
for their maintenance. The above statements, except where other
authorities are quoted, are taken from General Sleeman's3
account, which was founded on a narrative by Shah Zaman, the blind old
king himself, who communicated it to General Smith, he being at the
time in command of the troops at Ludhiana.
In
the year 1839 Shah Shuja', under Lord Auckland's Government, was set up
on the throne of Kabul by a British force, which two years later was
annihilated during its retreat.
The
testimony of all the writers up to this period, and, it is said, the
opinions of the jewellers of Delhi and Kabul also, concur in the view
that the diamond which Ranjit thus acquired was the Mogul's, i. e. the
one described by Tavernier. It seems probable that the mutilation and
diminution in weight by about 83 carats, to which, as we have shown, it
was subjected (see p. 342), took place while it was in the possession
of Shah Rukh, Shah Zaman, or Shah Shuja', whose necessities may have
caused one of them to have pieces removed to furnish him with money. .
Ranjit
during his lifetime often wore the diamond on state occasions, and it
is referred to by many English visitors to Lahore, who saw it during
this period.4 It is said to have then been dull and deficient in lustre.
In
1839 Ranjit died, and on Ms deathbed expressed a wish that the diamond,
then valued at one million sterling, should be sent to Jagannath,5 but this intention was not carried out,6 and the stone was placed in the jewel chamber till the infant Raja Dhalip Singh was acknowledged as Ranjit's successor.
1 Cunningham, History of the Sikhs, Oxford, 1918, p. 153. The Shah's own account (Autobiography, chap,
xxv) of Ranjit's methods to get possession of the diamond is more
favourable to the latter than Captain Murray's. (See his Rangeet Singh, 96.)
2 Dr. W. L. M'Gregor, History of the Sikhs, London, 1847, i. 170.
3 Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, 288 ff.
4 Dr. M'Gregor, History of the Sikhs, London, 1847, i. 216 ; Baron C. von Hugel, Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab, 1845, p. 303.
8 Lieut.-Colonel Steinbach, The Punjab, London, 1846, p. 16. • Miss Eden, Up the Country, ii. 130, says that the Maharaja ultimately consented to its not being sent.
