Home › The Koh-I-Nur › The Koh-I-Nur: Jehan

The Koh-I-Nur: Jehan

Bernier tells us that on the death of Shah Jehan, 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 Aurungzeb, 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.