Koh-i-noor : the history of the world's most infamous diamond /
The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a publi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London :
Bloomsbury,
2017
London : 2018 |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over great swathes of the richest country in India in a formal Act of Submission to a private corporation, the East India Company. He was also compelled to hand over to the British monarch, Queen Victoria, perhaps the single most valuable object on the subcontinent- the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. The history of the Koh-i-Noor that was then commissioned by the British may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi bazaars, but it was to become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology that has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation told through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting - in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother "The Koh-i-noor is the world's most famous diamond, but it has always had a fog of mystery around it. Now, using previously untranslated Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu sources, and the discoveries of modern gemmologists to reconstruct its original form, William Dalrymple and Anita Ananad blow away the legends to reveal its true history--stranger, and more violent, than any fiction."--From dust jacket |
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| Item Description: | Originally published: India : Juggernaut Books, 2016 |
| Physical Description: | vi, 335 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 23 cm vi, 335 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), map ; 23 cm viii, 333 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly colour), 1 map ; 20 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-227) and index Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-318) and index Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 1408888823 140888884X 163557076X 9781408888827 9781408888841 9781635570762 |