Question

The Kohinoor diamond was taken from which of the following kings?
A) Teja Singh
B) Ranjodh Singh
C) Ajit Singh
D) Maharaja Duleep

Answer 1

Hint: Kohinoor, which weighs 105.6 carats, is one of the biggest cuts in the world.
The diamond may have been mined at the southern bank of the Krishna River in Golconda (today's Andhra Pradesh), India, from the Kollur mine, a sequence of four-meter (13-ft).

Complete answer:
In 1526, the Mughal emperor Babur's first 'confirmed' mention of the stone came in Baburnama. Babur acquired the diamond in the first Panipat war after the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans. Scholar NB Sen, among others, has written that, before his grandson Sultan Mahamad, the diamonds went from Babur to Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.

In 1739, the Persian general Nadir Shah defeated Mahamad and gave him his now renowned name to capture Delhi – and the diamond. He returned to Persia but eight years later was murdered. The diamond is now in the ownership of Ahmad Shah Durrani, one of his generals.

In 1813, a diamond returned to India, when Shah Shuja Durrani, an Ahmad Shah ancestor, escaped the struggles of his brothers in Kabul and brought them to Punjab, in exchange for asylum being given to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the father of the Sikh Empire.

Between 1839-1843, Maharaja Ranji Singh died, leaving his sons a diamond – and his country. But after three of his elder sons were rapidly killed, 5 year-old Duleep Singh, took the throne in 1843 and became the last Indian sovereign of the Kohinoor.

In 1849, the British won the second Anglo-Sikh War and annexed Punjab to the Sikh Kingdom under the Lahore Treaty. Duleep Singh, 11 years old, signals the empire before he leaves his throne and diamonds.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note: Kohinoor is now placed in the United Kingdom's Tower of London.The British had obtained Kohinoor and was positioned among Queen Victoria's crown gems.