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Feluda’s gems

 

A recurring theme of many Feluda cases was the theft or loss a very valuable piece of jewellery either on their own or when they adorned a sculpture. Indeed, these cases remind one of Wilkie Collins’ Moonstone, written in the background of Victorian England with Sergeant Cuff as one of the earliest known detectives in English detective fiction. Needless to say, Feluda outwitted the criminal in every instance and recovered the precious jewellery. Here are some of them –

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Badshahi Angti - Courtesy: Chand Begum Jewellers, New Delhi

The ‘Badshahi Angti’, belonging to the Mughal emperors especially Aurangazeb – a ring studded with emerald and ruby, surmounted by a big diamond in the centre and mounted in gold. Of all cases that Feluda solved, this was one where he had a very close brush with death., New Delhi

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Blue Beryl

Kailash Chowdhury’s blue beryl. The name beryl comes from the Sanskrit ‘veruliyam’, a name given to the compound or ‘beryllos’, a Greek word meaning crystal. Dark blue beryl was not discovered until 1976, so Mr Chowdhury’s beryl was light blue aquamarine as pictured above. This was one of Feluda’s earlier cases.

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Yamantaka (Jamantak)

The very expensive ‘Yamantaka’ piece in ‘Gangtokay Gondogol’ made of solid gold and dotted with precious stones. Yamantaka is still prevalent in tantrism and literally means defeater of death. The deity had been an integral part of Mahayana Buddhism over millennia

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The 50 carat cut diamond in Baksho Rohosshyo that Feluda recovered from a Kodak film canister and was assaulted in Shimla to give it up. It finally went to the De Beers at an auction.

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The golden Ganesh of the Ghoshals in Joy Baba Felunath, for which Feluda’s arch enemy Maganlal Meghraj was prepared to pay 30,000 rupees, cash in 1977 and which was hidden in the king of the jungle and Bikash Singha’s radio.

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Naulakha belonging to Nana Saheb

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Life Divine

 

The Naulakha necklace once belonging to Dhondu Panth aka Nana Saheb and usurped by the Nepalese king, featured in Bombaiyer Bombetey, smuggled through Jatayu in Sri Aurobindo’s Life Divine. This motif i.e. the concealment of an object by cutting out pages in a book had been encountered in detective fiction before in The Solitary Cyclist, a Sherlock Holmes adventure. Also, Aurobindo himself devised a similar ploy to smuggle a pistol inside the Gita to Kanailal Dutta and Satyen Basu to assassinate the state turned witness for the Muraripukur bomb case Naren Goswami.

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Emperor Jahangir’s zodiacal gold mohur featured in Jahangirer Swarnamudra. Minted in 1619 AD, the inscriptions read : 'The surface of gold was decorated at Agra by Jahangir Shah, son of Akbar Shah'.

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The pink pearl in the Golapi Mukto Rohosshyo. Feluda had his third and final brush with Maganlal Meghraj for this gem. The value was determined by the naturalness of the pearl and later sold. Agatha Christie’s detective duo Tommy and Tuppence solved a mystery relating to a pink pearl.

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The Narayani Mudra as described in Royal Bengal Rahashya, the treasure unearthed in the temple of Kata Thakurani just before the appearance of the tiger

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Robertson’s Ruby looted by Captain Robertson, officer commanding a detachment of the 93rd Scottish Highlanders during the relief of Lucknow,1858 and brought back to India by his descendant. This was one of Feluda’s last cases

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The diamond studded Shakuntalar Kantahar worn by the famous Anglo Indian actress of the silent cinema Virginia Reynolds aka Shakuntala of the family of Captain Thomas Reynolds

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Disclaimer : This is a pure hobbyist site without any financial implications and our grateful thanks to all those who have contributed. We have adopted the use of the photographs in this site under the Fair Use and Copyleft policy. For the Feluda brand name, we thank Mr Sandip Ray.  If anyone who believes that his/her photograph is copyrighted, please get in touch and we will do the needful.

 

Note : Visitors to this site are welcome to post their comments in the ‘comments’ section and can contribute to the collection as they wish. The contribution will be uploaded subjected to the curators’ decision.

 

Script & collection by Sidhu Jyatha (Orkut)

Curators : Sidhu Jyatha and The Indian Jedi

Webmaster: Indian Jedi (Orkut)