MOSCOW, January 8: Heritage sometimes takes a strange route. You trace the journey of the most famous Indian diamond, Kohinoor, and reach the British Crown. So, where do you look for the ancient diamonds that disappeared from Srirangam in Tamil Nadu? Move to Moscow, there's more.Russia's largest-selling - and most credible - weekly newspaper Moskovski Novosti has come out with the sensational disclosure that two of the prime exhibits at Russian Diamond Fund Exhibition in the Kremlin are originally from India.The newspaper traced the history of the diamonds for the first time last week, but did not reveal its sources. Like anything else related to communist Kremlin, the exhibition had also been wrapped in a veil of secrecy for decades.According to the newspaper, the diamond bearing the name of `Orlov', belonged to the temple of Srirangam in Tamil Nadu. It was originally the eye of a deity and was plucked out by a French soldier. The diamond subsequently became the property of Persian king Nadir Shah, who came to India in the 18th century.After the assassination of Nadir Shah, the diamond ended up in the possession of an Armenian trader from Persia, from whom Grigory Orlov, a favourite of Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great, purchased it on her behalf.The other diamond, `Shah', belonged to Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan but later reached Nadir Shah. In 1828, Persian Prince Khosrau Mirza brought `Shah' to St Petersburg and gave it to Russian Tsar Nicholas-I, in compensation for the murder of Russian envoy and poet Alexander Griboyedev by Persian fanatics in the Russian mission at Tebriz.The Russian Diamond Fund Exhibition which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month had originally been inaugurated to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the former Soviet Union. It was Moscow's idea of attracting foreign tourists. Later, the CPSU turned it into a permanent exhibition, housing it in two halls of the Armory Museum in the presidential complex of the Kremlin. One of the halls displays diamonds cut-and-fashioned by modern Russian jewellers, while the other exhibits historic diamonds.During the Soviet times, the exhibition was very popular as both domestic and foreign tourists were routinely brought here on guided tours. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of visitors to the exhibition has dwindled. At present, it somehow manages to keep itself afloat thanks to the school-children, who under Soviet regime were not allowed to see the treasures of the diamond fund.Recently, the exhibition was at the centre of a controversy in the Russian Press, regarding its legal status. So far, it has been under the finance ministry, while the fund's workers want to make it a national asset. ``The exhibition should be turned into a museum so that it could look after its own problems,'' said Yevgeny Bychkov, former chairman of the Russian Precious Metal Committee.It is perhaps surprising that no Kremlin official has, so far, suggested an auction of these valuable treasures, although the Russian economy is currently passing through an unprecedented crisis. The last sales of the diamond fund was held in 1936 during the height of collectivisation of Russian farmers under Stalin.
