GOLCONDA

After the fall of the Roman Empire, diamonds were forgotten for a long time. Natural diamonds still appeared in European markets and were even considered precious, but the demand was low. In the fourteenth century, Venetian jewelers finally invented a technology to cut diamonds, and the first diamonds (brilliants) instantly found their rightful place in royal treasuries. Decrees began to appear in Europe, ordering that all diamonds, like everything rare and valuable, be immediately surrendered to the royal treasury. To ensure these laws were followed, those who presented the king with fine gifts were handsomely rewarded with gold, titles, and all sorts of privileges.

By this time in the fourteenth century, European merchants were already aware that diamonds were mined only in India. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo contributed to this knowledge in his Book of the Marvels of the World, where he describes the fabulously wealthy Indian kingdom of Golconda:

It is in this kingdom that diamonds are obtained, and I will tell you how. There are certain lofty mountains in those parts, and when the winter rains fall, which are very heavy, the waters come roaring down the mountains in great torrents. When the rains are over, and the waters from the mountains have ceased to flow, they search the beds of the torrents and find plenty of diamonds. In the summer as well, there are plenty to be found in the mountains, but the heat of the sun is so great that it is scarcely possible to go thither, nor is there then a drop of water to be found. Moreover, in those mountains, great serpents, besides other vermin, are rife to a marvelous degree, and this owes to the great heat. The serpents are also the most venomous in existence, insomuch that any one going to that region is in fearful peril, for many have been destroyed by these evil reptiles.

Now, among these mountains, there are certain great and deep valleys, to the bottom of which there is no access. The men who go in search of the diamonds take with them pieces of flesh, as lean as they can get, and these they cast into the bottom of a valley. Now, there are many white eagles that haunt those mountains and feed upon the serpents. When the eagles see the meat thrown down, they pounce upon it and carry it up to some rocky hilltop where they begin to rend it. But there are men on the watch and as soon as they see that the eagles have settled, they raise a loud shout to drive them away. And when the eagles are thus frightened away, the men recover the pieces of meat and find them full of diamonds which have stuck to the meat down in the bottom of the valley. For the abundance of diamonds down there in the depths of the valleys is astonishing, but nobody can get down; and if one could, it would be only to be incontinently devoured by the serpents which are so abundant there.

There is also another way of getting the diamonds. The people go to the nests of those white eagles, of which there are many, and in their droppings, they find plenty of diamonds which the birds have swallowed while devouring the meat cast into the valleys. And, when the eagles themselves are taken, diamonds are found in their stomachs.

So now I have told you three different ways in which these stones are found. No other country but the kingdom of Mutfili produces them, but there they are found both abundantly and of a large size. Those that are brought to our part of the world are only the refuse, as it were, of the finer and larger stones. For the flower of the diamonds and other large gems, as well as the largest pearls, are all carried to the Great Khan and other kings and princes of those regions; in truth, they possess all the great treasures of the world.

Modern researchers disagree about whether Marco Polo truly visited all the countries he described. It's possible that he simply heard these stories in places like Baghdad or Hormuz, which were major crossroads between Europe and Asia at the time. The story of diamonds, eagles, and snakes, interestingly, was so popular that it appears in several other sources from that period. Most readers will likely recognize the Diamond Valley from ‘The Travels of Sinbad the Sailor’—it is the same valley where Sinbad is carried by the Roc, a mythical giant bird.

Let’s return to Europe now, where it is closer to the fifteenth century, when cut diamonds were rapidly gaining popularity in royal courts, making India and the incredible region of Golconda, now described as the ‘diamond fortress’, a beacon for all sorts of adventurers, merchants, and treasure seekers. It’s quite possible that Vasco da Gama, who finally discovered the sea route to India, was also enticed by the glitter of diamonds.

But what was Golconda really like at that time? In the fifteenth century, it was not yet a kingdom but merely a clay fortress perched upon a hill on the western outskirts of the modern city of Hyderabad in southern India. The name Golconda means ‘cowherd’s hill’ in Telugu, the language of the region. Around this time, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin was actively exploring the local bazaars of the area, and in his book A Journey Beyond the Three Seas, Nikitin mentions the diamond mines in Raichur (a city on the Krishna River near Golconda).

However, the merchant from Tver writes nothing about snakes, eagles, or gathering precious stones like mushrooms after the rain. During Nikitin's time, diamond mining around Golconda was already a well-organized operation undertaken in shallow mines along the riverbanks.

However, it’s possible that two centuries earlier, Marco Polo’s contemporaries were indeed simply finding diamonds in the river sand. And to deter overly curious foreigners from poking their noses into these areas, Indian traders may have invented the story about poisonous snakes and inaccessible high mountains. By the fifteenth century, however, the locals had figured out that the demand for diamonds was rapidly increasing, and so they began washing diamonds from the soil intentionally, even allocating plots for mining to anyone willing to work.

The entire system of mining was described a little later by European travelers. Notably, there is a report from the Earl Marshal of England Henry Howard to the Royal Society in London in 1677, where he shares his accounts of the Indian diamond mines. The report includes a curious story of a Portuguese man who, in the early sixteenth century (right after the sea route to India was discovered and Portugal established a colony there), sold all his possessions back home and set off for Golconda to mine diamonds. He managed to acquire a plot of land and spent a year working on it but without any success. In the end, he sold everything he had, down to his last coat, to pay his workers.

When all his money was gone and no diamonds had been found, one evening, he decided to drink poison and end his life. As he was preparing to drink it, a servant ran into his tent with a huge 400-carat diamond that had just been washed up on his plot. The Portuguese man's joy knew no bounds. He took the stone, returned to Europe, and, presenting it to the king, received enough money and privileges to live in comfort for the rest of his life.

Before departing India, the Portuguese man installed a commemorative plaque in one of the churches in Goa with an inscription in the local language:

By the sixteenth century, Golconda was experiencing what could be called a ‘diamond fever’. It was living up to the fabulously wealthy region, which would later become a sultanate, described in Marco Polo's book. In fact, some of the most legendary diamonds in human history were discovered in the waters and banks of the Krishna River.

Perhaps the most famous diamond ever discovered from the Golconda mines is the magnificent Koh-i-Noor, whose name translates as ‘mountain of light’. This enormous diamond once adorned the turbans of the rulers of the Malwa sultanate, and it was foretold that when the stone fell from its place, the sultanate would fall—and that’s exactly what happened.

The sultanate was conquered, and the stone was taken by the victors. Over the centuries, the diamond passed from one sultan to another, but it always remained near the head of its owner, symbolizing their greatness. When the Koh-i-Noor came into Great Britain’s possession and was presented to Queen Victoria, she ordered it to be set in the royal crown. It remains there to this day, though only queens are allowed to wear this crown. According to legend, the diamond brings misfortune to men, a curse that has come true many times.

The Hope Diamond, a stunning blue stone, is another remarkable gem from the mines of Golconda. It was acquired by the famous French traveler and treasure hunter Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. His book Travels in India is a fascinating record of the era, offering detailed descriptions of the Golconda mines in the mid-seventeenth century, and Tavernier believed he was the first European to discover this source of diamonds. The rare blue diamond was first presented to Louis XIV and was re-cut several times.

It passed through the possession of the British king George IV, the British banker Thomas Hope, Pierre Cartier, and finally American coal heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean. Evalyn famously wore the Hope as part of a lavish necklace designed by Cartier. During her wild parties at her mansion, she would often misplace the gem, turning the hunt for the stone into a drunken game with her guests. Today, the diamond resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

We cannot overlook yet another famous diamond from Golconda, the Great Mogul, which is often considered the same as the Orlov Diamond by modern historians. It was first mentioned by none other than Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who earned such trust from Aurangzeb of the Mughal dynasty that the emperor allowed him to make an inventory of the jewels in his treasury. Tavernier lamented that the craftsman first entrusted with cutting the massive stone had ruined it, causing the diamond to lose more than half its weight. Nevertheless, even in its fragmented form, the diamond, which Tavernier called the Great Mogul, still weighed an impressive 200 carats.

After Aurangzeb was overthrown, the diamond, as is often the case, disappeared somewhere in Asia. Legend has it that it passed through the treasuries of various rulers before eventually being set into the eye of a giant statue of the deity Ranganatha in Tamil Nadu. A French soldier, who had converted to Hinduism and spent several years working at the temple, stole the diamond. The soldier sold it to a British captain in Madras, who took the gem to Amsterdam. There, in a shop, it was bought by Count Orlov, who later presented it to Catherine the Great on her birthday. The Prussian envoy Count Victor von Solms, who was present at the reception that evening, wrote:

Everyone who entered the hall, despite the deep autumn season, brought huge bouquets, and some even presented specially prepared gifts. Count Grigory, however, arrived empty-handed. Noticing his lack of conformity to the general mood, he supposedly slapped his forehead in frustration and said, ‘Forgive me, Mother! Today is such a celebration for you, and I, an old fool, completely forgot. Don't be angry. I have something here . . . perhaps it'll do . . . if you won't refuse it.’ With these words, the count pulled a flat box from his vest pocket, which contained a precious diamond.

Today, the Orlov Diamond is the largest cut diamond in the collection of the Diamond Fund of Russia.

Of course, this is just a small number of the many stories about the magnificent treasures of Golconda. Until the early eighteenth century, Golconda remained almost the sole source of diamonds in the world, and its name became synonymous with fabulous wealth. However, in 1725, diamonds were discovered in Brazil, and by the mid-eighteenth century, most diamond mining had shifted there as India's supplies had been nearly exhausted. Today, much of the area where Golconda's mines once thrived is submerged as the Krishna River was dammed to supply water to India's growing cities. And so, embarking on a treasure hunt in those parts is no longer possible!