Introduction

Indian Diamonds 127
The value of their [the Dukes of Datchet’s] collection is fabulous – the intrinsic
value of the stones […] was a quarter of a million of money! […]
This was the net value […] and quite apart from any adventitious value
which they might possess, from […] the point of view of historical association.”
(Marsh 21)
The Mazarin stone, a “Crown diamond”, is worth a hundred thousand pounds
(“Mazarin” 559). Marsh’s text sets off the trade value against the historical value
of the diamonds, which cannot be expressed through money and recognises an
invaluable aspect in the existence of the diamond. The always impending cutting
of the diamonds is prefigured in the history of the Koh-i-Noor. C. W. King criticised
its reduction in size. He calls it “[a] most ill-advised proceeding, which has
deprived the stone of all its historical and mineralogical value” (36). The historical
value, then, depends on wholeness and invests the diamonds with symbolical
meaning. As in the instances of historical diamonds, they symbolise power, and as
the witness of conquests they are the lasting trophy of victory. The Moonstone,
however, combines its existence as a trophy of war with its religious significance.
The Sacred Gem: The Moonstone
The Moonstone follows the pattern of stories of historical diamonds in its description
as a sacred part of a statue of a god. Originally, it was set in the forehead of
the “moon-god” (Collins, Moonstone 12), Soma7. The historical temple of Somnath
was dedicated to Shiva in his incarnation as ‘Soma’s Lord’, Som-nāth (Platts
“Soma”). The temple held a linga beset with jewels (Thapar 31). Lingas are the
common emblems used to represent Shiva in temples and are usually preferred to
figurative depictions (Michell 38). Somnath was, at the time of its sacking by
Mahmud of Ghazni, known for its wealth and several kilograms of jewels which
adorned its statues (Thapar 31).
The depiction of Soma mounted on an antelope in The Moonstone (464) references
the traditional iconographic representation of Soma with a three-wheeled
chariot drawn by an antelope (Bunce, “Soma”). In The Moonstone, the association
with Shiva is abandoned in favour of “Vishnu the Preserver” (Collins, Moonstone
12), who guards the diamond. He is a much more benign god than Shiva, who is
also associated with the legend of the Koh-i-Noor. Shiva is worshipped as the
deity of destruction and chaos, and the god of battlefields and cremation (Michell
25). Vishnu, on the other hand, represents the life affirming elements of creation
and preservation. He also maintains the order of the universe and, in myth, res-
7 Indra, who wields the ‘thunderbolt’, vajra, is allied with Soma in mythology (York 807). Vajra is
Sanskrit for ‘diamond’.