Everyone claims the Koh-i-Noor

It’s only a hard lump of carbon, after all, yet the Koh-i-Noor diamond exerts a magnetic pull on those who behold it. Once the largest diamond in the world, it has passed from one famous ruling family to another as the tides of war and fortune have turned one way and another over the past 800 or more years. Today, it is held by the British, a spoil of their colonial wars, but the descendant states of all its previous owners claim this controversial stone as their own.

Indian legend holds that the Koh-i-Noor’s history stretches back an incredible 5,000 years, and that the gem has been part of royal hoards since around the year 3,000 BCE.  It seems more likely, however, that these legends conflate various royal gems from different millennia, and that the Koh-i-Noor itself was probably discovered in the 1200s CE.

Most scholars believe that the Koh-i-Noor was discovered during the reign of the Kakatiya Dynasty in the Deccan Plateau of southern India (1163 - 1323).  A precursor to the Vijayanagara Empire, Kakatiya ruled over much of present-day Andhra Pradesh, site of the Kollur Mine.  It was from this mine that the Koh-i-Noor, or “Mountain of Light,” likely came.  

In 1310, the Khilji Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate invaded the Kakatiya kingdom, and demanded various items as “tribute” payments.  Kakatiya’s doomed ruler Prataparudra was forced to send tribute north, including 100 elephants, 20,000 horses - and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.  Thus, the Kakatiya lost their most stunning jewel after less than 100 years of ownership, in all likelihood, and their entire kingdom would fall just 13 years later.

The Khilji family did not enjoy this particular spoil of war for long, however.  In 1320, they were overthrown by the Tughluq clan, the third of five families that would rule the Delhi Sultanate. Each of the succeeding Delhi Sultanate clans would possess the Koh-i-Noor, but none of them held power for long.

This account of the stone’s origins and early history is the most widely accepted today, but there are other theories as well. The Mughal emperor Babur, for one, states in his memoir, the Baburnama, that during the 13th century the stone was the property of the Raja of Gwalior, who ruled a district of Madhya Pradesh in central India.  To this day, we are not entirely certain if the stone came from Andhra Pradesh, from Madhya Pradesh, or from Andhra Pradesh via Madhya Pradesh.

Today, the Koh-i-Noor diamond is still a spoil of Britain’s colonial wars.  It rests in the Tower of London along with the other Crown Jewels.  

As soon as India gained its independence in 1947, the new government made its first request for the return of the Koh-i-Noor. It renewed its request in 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. India’s parliament once again asked for the gem in 2000. Britain has refused to consider India’s claims.

In 1976, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto asked that Britain return the diamond to Pakistan, since it had been taken from the Maharaja of Lahore.  This prompted Iran to assert its own claim.  In 2000, Afghanistan’s Taliban regime noted that the gem had come from Afghanistan to British India, and asked to have it returned to them instead of Iran, India, or Pakistan.

Britain responds that because so many other nations have claimed the Koh-i-Noor, none of them have a better claim to it than Britain’s.  However, it seems pretty clear to me that the stone originated in India, spent most of its history in India, and really should belong to that nation.

ThoughtCo