Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 4, issue 12, 1 June 2020 | Page 39

a desire to purchase a diamond. The shop owner gave a lecture to her on
the hazards of buying a diamond but she insisted on buying one.
He then showed some diamonds and finally she bought one. The
shopkeeper magnanimously told her to keep the diamond for a month or
two and if no untoward incidents happen she may buy it permanently
and he would give a bill with a certificate of guarantee. After the lady
left, the shop owner told me that neither he nor his shop should get a
bad name. A good thought indeed and I appreciated him.
I remember when I was in Hyderabad almost half a century ago working
in the Archaeological Survey of India, Dr. Krishnasastri, the Director of
Archaeology of the then Hyderabad State took me to his museum. The
museum was not open for public for the fear of security. He showed me a
huge uncut diamond and he could not estimate its value. However, its
value increases when it is cut into different shapes. All these thoughts
came into my mind when I thought of writing this note on Kohinoor
diamond.
The word Kohinoor is Persian. It consists of two words ‘Koh’ that means
a mountain and ‘Nur’ means light. Because of its brilliance it has been
rightly called Kohinoor. Because of the greatness of this diamond, it was
in great demand and hence many kings and emperors wanted to possess
it. This history is highly interesting.
Kohinoor was one of the largest diamonds in the world then and its
weight was 793 carats. The word carat was called ‘carato’ in Italian,
‘caratin’ in Greek and ‘quirat’ in Persian. The Kohinoor diamond was
discovered in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. The Kakatiya kings
with their capital at Warangal (Orugallu) ruled over most parts of
Andhra during 1083 to 1323 AD.
King Prataparudra and queen Rudramadevi had this diamond. But as
they were God-fearing, they adorned Kohinoor on their family Goddess
Bhadrakali. Ghayatuddin Tughlaq (1320 AD) invaded the Kakatiya
Kingdom and plundered the temple and took away the Kohinoor along
with gold and silver.