Le Temple D'Angkor Vat, 3 Vols, (Vol. I: Architecture), (Vol. II: Sculpture), (Vol. III: bas-relief galleries), (Memoires Archeologiques: Publies Par L'ecole francaise D'Extreme-Orient)

The possession of the biggest and finest of jewels has always been the prerogative of kings, but nowhere has this royal right been better exploited than in India. Famed since Antiquity as a supreme source of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and pearls, the Indian subcontinent has also produced some of humanity's most colourful sovereigns: a glittering array of Maharajas, Ranas, Nawabs, and Nizams whose history stretches back over thousands of years. Ancient Sanskrit manuals on statecraft exhorted Kings to maximize their power and prestige by claiming for themselves all of the best stones found in their realms. Few were the rulers who disregarded such pleasing advice. This book tells the story of these kings and their jewels, beginning with the rise of the magnificent Mughal empire in the fifteenth century and tracing it through to the extinction of monarchy in India four hundred years later. Throughout this tumultuous period, the fortunes of India's gemstones and jewels presaged the fate of her Kings: as the best of the royal diamonds, rubies, and emeralds slid out of Indian hands into European ones, so too did real political power. For a time, however, outsiders were fooled. India's gem wealth was prodigious and, even at the height of the British Empire, many of her surviving Kings indulged in a fantastic display of riches that dazzled the outside world. In the 1920s and 30s numerous Nawabs and Maharajas flocked to the fashionable jewelry houses of Paris and London to have their traditional jewels reset in the latest Art Deco styles. Despite appearances, this was not a renaissance of royal power in India. It was the last flowering of a centuries-old tradition of regal splendor, of which today only an elusive, occasional glimmer remains. The authors hope to have caught something of this glimmer, before it fades away altogether.