History Forum / General / General Topics / September 2005

Rare Jewel Stolen from Hindu Temple by Christian Proselytizer on
Display in UK

Posted September 24, 2005
21 Sep 2005
Sources:
Rediff.com
Wikipedia "Koh-i-Noor Diamond"

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

A 'cursed' black diamond, stolen from a Hindu temple by a Christian
proselytizer two centuries ago, is to go on display in the UK for the
first time, at the Natural History Museum's Diamonds exhibition, from
Wednesday 21 September.

Known as the "The Eye of Brahma", the jewel's curse allegedly began
when it was stolen from a Hindu shrine in southern India and then
claimed to be responsible for the violent deaths of two Russian
princesses.

After hearing about it in the early 1800s, a Christian monk forcibly
removed the original rough 195-carat diamond from the eye of the sacred
icon of Brahma at a Hindu temple near Pondicherry, India. This
sacrilege allegedly cursed all future owners of the precious stone to a
violent death.

In 1947 Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov and Princess Leonila
Galitsine-Bariatinsky - both former owners of the "The Eye of Brahma" -
leapt to their deaths in apparent suicides. Fifteen years earlier, J.W.
Paris, the diamond dealer who imported the stone to the USA, had jumped
to his death from one of New York's tallest buildings shortly after
concluding the sale of the jewel.

In an attempt to break the curse, the diamond was re-cut into three
separate gems and has since been owned by a succession of private
owners, all of whom seem to have escaped the curse. The 67.5-carat
diamond, also called the Black Orlov, is set in a 108-diamond brooch
suspended from a 124-diamond necklace.

Incidentally, this isn't the first famous diamond stolen from India by
Christian imperialists and proselytizers. There's everyone's favourite,
the 186.063 carat Koh-i-Noor, owned originally by the Rajah of Malwa in
1294, that was stolen (or rather, forcibly taken) by the British from
the successor of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (of Punjab). The Koh-i-Noor, cut
to 108.063 carats to increase its brilliance, now adorns the crown of
the Queen of the United Kingdom. There was also the 45.52 carat Hope
Diamond, the world's largest deep blue diamond, "found" in India by
noted French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the seventeenth
century. Then, weighing 88.70 carats, there was the Shah diamond, that
was also spirited away from India.

The tragedy is, none of these famous diamonds have managed to stay in
India, their land of origin. A trip to the Smithsonian National Museum
of Natural History in Washington DC reveals diamonds, emeralds and
other priceless treasures stolen from "pagan" lands of India, Burma,
Africa and South America by Christian missionaries and European
colonialists.