The famous Ahmadabad Diamond of Golconda, India origin

  


The Ahmadabad Diamond of Indian origin..internetstones.com

Above image: The Ahmedabad diamond gets it's name from the city of Ahmedabad the capital of Gujarat State in central-western India and it was here  Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the 17th century A.D.  purchased the diamond. It was then it is said, a prominent diamond center in this region ......  

This brilliant stone was discovered in the 17th century, which confirms its Indian origin - at that time, India was the only source for diamonds in the world. The source of origin could be any one of the five groups  of mines operating on the eastern side of the Deccan Plateau. More than 50000 people were in the employ of various mine owners. By evaluating the color and clarity of the stone which is of an extremely high order, the place of origin could be the Kollur mines, east of Golconda,near city of Hyderabad, now one of a few major IT centers in the world. The mines were located in the alluvial plains  near Guntur district of Andhra where the krishna river flows. 
 
Jean Baptiste Tavernier famous French traveler and gem traderen.wikipedia.org

The diamond gets its name from the city of Ahmedabad, on the Sabarmati River. The city has long been a center for trading and cutting diamonds, both of which are still pursued there today (although to a lesser degree). Most probably it was the only diamond cutting center in the world then  which was comparable to the prestigious  position held by Antwerp, Belgium, at present in the international diamond industry. Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a famous French traveler and gem trader was on a visit to Ahmedabad in the 1600s. Over a span of 40 year period, he made several  trips to the East. In chapter XXII of part II of his book Travels in India, Tavernier described some of the notable diamonds and rubies which he had seen during his visits  with illustrations.

The rough stone, which was said to weigh over 1571/2 carats, was cut into a 94.5 carat diamond,  said Tavernier. There were two minor flaws at the base. He also said he bought it for a friend, but the identity of the friend is unclear. Who was the friend  for whom Tavernier purchased the diamond? The most likely person was his sovereign head  Louis XIV of France, to whom he had sold several diamonds, among them two briolette. The other candidate was the great Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb, the (1659-1707) and a noted collector of diamonds.

It is known, however, that much later the diamond was owned by Begum Hazrat Mahal, wife of King Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh who had been exiled to Calcutta by the British after his refusal to sign a treaty of abdication at the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. When the king's rebellion against the British failed, the Begum fled to Nepal. She later used the diamond as a bargaining chip to negotiate her safe passage to India.
 
At this point, the history of this diamond again becomes murky and, when it finally resurfaced, it had been reduced to 78.86 carats- the recorded weight was 90.5 carats. a drop in weight was due to change of design from a briolette to a pear shape.  Put up for sale by Christie's in 1995, it was purchased by gem collector Robert Mouawad for approximately $ 4.3 million. The current value of the diamond is greater than $ 5.0 million.


http://www.overabillion.com/ahmedabad-diamond.html