Discovered in the deepest mists of antiquity, the great diamond was said to have been looted, probably from the eye of an idol in a temple in southern India, by marauding Turks. Soon, Theo Metcalfe’s report continues, the ‘jewel fell into the hands of the Emperors of the Ghoree dynasty, and from then successively of the Tughluq–Syed and the Lodhi dynasties, and eventually descended to the family of Timur [the Mughals] and remained in their possession until the reign of Mohammud Shah, who wore it in his Turban’.
