Chasing the Mountain of Light: Across India on the Trail of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond

by KevinRushby (Author)

• Used

  Abridged::Audiobook::Box set::Illustrated::Large P
  2004

  $3.56

  In the beginning diamonds came from India. And the greatest of those ancient stones, the Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, cut a deep and bloody path across its history and legends. Fought over, cursed and occasionally lost, taken from the mines of Golconda in the south to the Mughal palaces of Agra and Delhi in the north, it finally reached the Sikhs in the Punjab, only to be seized by British agents eager to please the young Queen Victoria. It now lies in the Tower of London, its ownership still disputed. Kevin Rushby follows the trail of this great jewel through fascinating corners of India, crossing along the way the paths of dealers, smugglers and petty crooks. The historical characters he also encounters are no less colourful, from the bloodthirsty tyrants who built mountains of human heads to the man-god Krishna. Rushby unravels the religious symbolism and mysticism behind our passion for diamonds, on a journey that is humorous, informative and, as it progresses, more than a little dangerous.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.25

  In the beginning diamonds came from India, nowhere else. And the greatest of those ancient stones cut a deep and bloody path across the history and legends of the country. The Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, has been fought over, cursed and occasionally lost. Seized by British agents eager to please the young Queen Victoria, it now lies in the Tower of London, its ownership still disputed. Kevin Rushby follows the trail of this great jewel on a journey that takes him to many fascinating corners of India and to the heart of Indian culture. Along the way he meets the dealers, smugglers and petty crooks who populate modern India's diamond trade, and finds that the depths of human greed and the heights of spiritual aspiration are both bound up in India's long association with diamonds.