A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c22.s1.6

c22.s1.6

As regards the diamond "as large as a hen's egg," said to have been found at the sack of Vijayanagar and presented to the Âdil Shâh (above, p. 208), Couto (Decada VIII. c. xv.) says that it was a jewel which the Râya had affixed to the base of the plume on his horse's head-dress. Garcia da Orta, who was in India in 1534, says that at Vijayanagar a diamond had been seen as large as a small hen's egg, and he even declares the weights of three others to have been respectively 120, 148, and 250 *mangelis*, equivalent to 150, 175, and 312½ carats (Tavernier, V. Ball, ii. 433).