Woman fights to bring back Nassak diamond
Efforts are on to file a PIL in the Supreme Court to bring back the blue Nassak Diamond, which once belonged to the Trimbakeshwar Temple. Presently, the diamond is said to be in a private museum in Lebanon, according to Lalita Shinde, trustee of Trimbakeshwar Devasthan. Shinde, who is leading a single woman’s fight to bring back the diamond, said that the diamond belonged to the Trimbakeshwar deity but had been looted by the British about 200 years ago. A PIL to bring back the diamond would be filed in the Supreme Court possibly in the first week of August, she said on Friday. “The Nassak diamond, also called ‘Eye of God Shiva’, is an emerald cut blue-white stone weighing 43.38 carats or 8.676 gr, when it was mined from the Amaragiri mine located in Mahbubnagar, Telangana, in the 15th century. The rough was 89 carat which was cut and belonged to the Mysore kingdom,” Shinde said. Later, the Moguls subjugated Mysore and became owners of the diamond, which remained in their treasury. The Moguls were defeated by Nana Peshwe, and their treasury in Delhi included the Nassak Diamond. Nana Peshwe had made a vow to the Trimbakeshwar deity that he would gift the Nassak diamond if he succeeded in breaking the siege of Trimbakeshwar fort. He succeeded and gifted the deity with a priceless gold crown studded with jewels and the Nassak diamond in the centre in 1725,” she said. Shinde further claimed that the British East India Company looted the Nassak diamond and sold it off to jeweller Rundell and Bridge in 1818. It changed hands many times and was cut further to its present size of 43.38 carats or 8.676 gr. Now it belongs to Robert Mouawad museum in Lebanon, a private institution. Earlier she had writ-