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| Painting of Nadir Shah. en.wikipedia.org |
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| Mogul period.peacock throne embedded with diamonds. Pinterest |
Among the looters of Indian treasures, the invasion of Nadir Shah (1739) dealt a serious blow to the entire edifice of the Mogul Empire which had begun to crumple and later was razed to the ground with the arrival of the East India company in the 1600s.Nadir Shah (or Tahmāsp Qoli Khan ; 6 August 1698[1] -19 June 1747), son of a Shepard, was one of the most talented and highly effective Iranian rulers and his reign lasted from 1736 to 1747. He belonged tothe Turcoman Afshar tribe of Khorasan in north-eastern Iran. He rose to prominence and power through his military genius and his ability to tackle enemies without losing his fighting spirits. He freed Iran when parts of it were taken over by the Russians, Ottoman and others.Because of his successful exploits in Afghanistan, Shah became a close friend of the young Iranian king. When the boy king died he became the emperor of Iran in late 1730s
The wealth looted by Nadir Shah from the Moguls treasury is as follows:
The wealth looted by Nadir Shah from the Moguls treasury is as follows:
.... sixty lakhs of rupees and some thousand gold coins, nearly one crore worth of gold-ware, nearly fifty crores worth of jewels, most of them unrivaled in the world … the entire (70-80 million pounds worth) gem treasure at Delhi, including the celebrated piece Kohinur diamond ( taken away from Kakatia ruler Pratap Rudra II of Warangal, now in Andhra in 1303 by Ala-ud-din Khiliji's general Malik Kafur, huge collections of gems and jewelry, looted from India, now adorn the museums of London and Tehran. The chests 'filled with gold, silver, diamonds, pearls and emeralds from the Mogul treasury' are now in the Tehran Museum. This has been characterized by a Curator of the Smithsonian Institution as 'perhaps the greatest jewel treasury of all times'.
The Persian conqueror invaded Northern India, in 1739, with the sole intention of plundering it's wealth. He defeated the Moghul army at Karnal in February 1739, and took Emperor Muhammad Shah prisoner, and later marched into Delhi on 9th March,1739. The Emperor had nothing in his government treasury; the coffers were empty. He threw open his personal safe of jewels, and Nadir availed himself of all dazzling treasures that he could lay his hands on. His plunder consisted of all the crown jewels of the Mogul Emperors, which included the Koh-i-Nur, the Taj-e-mah, Akbar Shah diamond, the Shah diamond, the Jehangir diamond etc. and perhaps also the Great Table Diamond, as well as, the renowned peacock throne of Mogul ruler Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj. He sacked Delhi and Agra. When Nadir Shaw and his army left Delhi in the first week of May, 1739, this army carried with them a booty estimated at 70 crores (700 million rupees), and this helped him to exempt all Iranians from taxes for the next three years; besides a few thousand Indian girls (both Hindu and Muslim), a large number of boys camels, lots of slaves, thousands of elephants, and horses.![]()
Nadir left Delhi and its neighboring places to bleed. His invasion was well timed, particularly at a time when the Mogul army became week because of frequent costly wars waged by the early rulers against the Marathas and others. The ruler Mohamad Shah was no match for Nadir' army.
In the words of the Tazkira:
"Here and there some opposition was offered, but in most places people were butchered without resistance. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody. For a long time, streets remained strewn with corpses, as the walks of a garden with dead leaves and flowers. The town was reduced to ashes."
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_Shah
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| Highly embellished peacock throne of Delhi. Internet Stones |
In the words of the Tazkira:
"Here and there some opposition was offered, but in most places people were butchered without resistance. The Persians laid violent hands on everything and everybody. For a long time, streets remained strewn with corpses, as the walks of a garden with dead leaves and flowers. The town was reduced to ashes."
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_Shah