to Agra, and pleaded the cause of Deccan aggrandizement with Sháh-Jáhan himself. He told the Great Mogul of the wealth and treasures of the south, described the decrepit kingdoms that invited annihilation, and in glowing colours painted the glory that would redound to the name of his most religious Majesty from the extirpation of the effete colony of Portuguese infidels on the Malabar coast. The Mughal, he said, should never rest till his sway was supreme from the Himálayas to Cape Comorin. The crafty Persian did not trust to argument alone: he brought the Emperor a priceless diamond, from the mine of Kollúr on the Kistna, no loss a stone than the famous Koh-i-núr or 'Peak of Light'; which, after adorning the 'Great Mogul,' was carried away to Persia by Nádir Sháh, brought back to Afghánistán by Ahmad Durrání, and eventually came into the possession of Ranjít Singh, from whom it was transferred to the regalia of England on the annexation of the Punjab in 1849[1]. Fortified by so splendid a gift, Mír Jumla's arguments prevailed, and Sháh-Jahán authorized a further reinforcement of the army of the Deccan with a view to a spirited foreign policy. Dárá fought to the last against this strengthening of his brother's hand, but all he could obtain was the stipulation that Mír Jumla, and not Aurangzíb, should have the command of the new army of aggression, and that the general should leave his family at
- ↑ The history of this celebrated diamond, and its identity with Mír Jumla's gift, have been conclusively traced by Dr. Ball, in his edition of Tavernier's Travels, vol. ii. App. I.
