For more than a century, the fate of the dazzling Darya-e-Noor diamond has been sealed inside a bank vault — a mystery that haunts Khawaja Naim Murad, great-grandson of the last prince, or nawab, of Dhaka.
Locked away in 1908, were the family’s heirlooms lost during the violence at the end of British rule in 1947?
Did they survive Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 and the string of coups that followed, or are they still safe, dusty, but untouched?
Photo: AFP
Many suspect that the jewels are long gone and officials at the state-run bank hesitate to simply open the vault, fearing that they would carry the cost if it is empty.
However, the cash-strapped South Asian government has ordered a committee to unseal the vault — and Murad clings to hope.
“This is not a fairy tale,” said Murad, 55, recounting a story passed down from his father about the giant diamond dubbed the “River of Light,” the centerpiece rock of a glittering armband.
Photo: AFP
“The diamond was rectangular in shape and surrounded by more than half a dozen smaller diamonds,” Murad told reporters.
It was part of a trove of 108 treasures. According to original court documents, they include a gold-and-silver sword encrusted with diamonds, a bejeweled fez with cascading pearls and a fabulous star brooch once owned by a French empress.
The nawab’s riverside pink palace of Ahsan Manzil is now a government museum.
Murad, a former film star, lives in a sprawling villa in a wealthy Dhaka suburb.
He flourished a sheaf of documents, including a family book with detailed paintings of the treasures.
“It is one of the most famous diamonds in the world and its history is closely associated with that of the Koh-i-Noor,” the book says, referring to the shining centerpiece of Britain’s crown jewels — a gem also claimed by Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan. “It is absolutely perfect in luster.”
Another diamond of the same name, the pink-hued Daria-i-Noor, is in Tehran as part of the former royal jewels of Iran.
Murad says that the family’s diamond, too, was once owned by Persia’s shahs, then worn by Sikh warrior-leader Ranjit Singh in 19th-century Punjab. It was later seized by the British and eventually acquired by his ancestors.
However, fortunes shifted. In 1908, the then-nawab, Salimullah Bahadur, faced financial trouble.
Bahadur borrowed from British colonial powers — mortgaging his vast Dhaka estates and placing the treasures in a vault as collateral.
That was their last confirmed sighting. Since then, myth and history merge.
Murad believes his uncle saw the jewels in the bank in the 1980s, but bank officials say they do not know if the vault has ever been opened.
Chairman of the Bangladesh’s Land Reforms Board, A.J.M. Salahuddin Nagri, said that the government body inherited custody of the trove, held in a state-owned bank.
“But I haven’t seen any of the jewels yet,” Nagri told reporters.
The 1908 court papers did not specify the diamond’s carat weight, but valued it at 500,000 rupees — part of a hoard worth 1.8 million rupees. By today’s conversion, that equals about US$13 million, although experts say the market value of such rare and large jewels has since sometimes soared many times higher.
Today’s guardian, Shawkat Ali Khan, managing director of Sonali Bank, said that the safe remains shut.
“The vault is sealed,” Khan said. “Many years back, an inspection team came to check on the jewels, but they never really opened it — they just opened the gate that held the vault.”
He is keen for the vault to be opened at last, although no date yet has been given.
“I am excited,” he said with a brief smile.
The family hopes to discover if any of the century-old debt remains and whether they could reclaim the jewels.
Murad dreams of diamonds, but says his real wish is to simply see the treasure for himself.
“We believe that if anyone dies in debt, his soul never finds peace,” he said.
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