Golconda

Golconda (pronounced gol-kon-duh)

(1) A ruined fortress city in Telangana in West Andhra Pradesh near Hyderabad city, India, capital of one of the five Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan (1512-1687) which was then annexed to the Mogul empire; it was once famed as a centre of diamond cutting.

(2) A rich mine or other source of great wealth (usually without initial capital).

(3) An ostentatious display of jewelry (usually without initial capital).

(4) As Golconda diamond, either a diamond with an origin in the Golconda region or (informally), a diamond of the highest quality (graded Type IIa, of pure carbon and devoid of nitrogen, large and of the highest clarity.

Pre 1200: The Urdu گولکنڈہ‎ (Golkaṇḍa), an Urduization of the the Telugu గొల్లకొండ (gollakoṇḍa (literally “shepherd’s hill)), the construct being గొల్ల (golla) (of or pertaining to shepherds) + కొండ (koṇḍa) (hill); it was Romanized as Gullakōnḍa.  The first Golconda fort was erected during the eleventh century, and, modest by later standards, was originally a small mud-brick structure built as a military outpost of the Kakatiya Empire.  On the basis of archaeological excavations, it’s believed the Kakatiya ruler Ganapatideva (1199–1262) re-constructed the fort in stone and on a larger scale although it’s not clear when the name “Golconda fort” came into use, the earliest known written records dating from the mid-1400s.  In the early sixteenth century, the fort was transformed into a fortified citadel by Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk (1485–1543), founder of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, which ruled the Sultanate of Golconda between 1518-1687 with Golconda its capital city.  Golconda has been borrowed as a locality name in the US (Illinois New York & Nevada), Trinidad and Tobago and Australia (Tasmania).  Golconda is a noun, proper noun, golcondic is an adjective; the noun plural is plural golcondas.

Before the nineteenth century, India’s mines were the world’s only known source of diamonds and those found in the Golconda region remain among the finest known.  Because of geographic convenience and the existence of the fortified citadel as a secure facility, Golconda was for more than a century the world’s preeminent centre for diamond cutting and polishing.  It was these associations which led to the word Golconda becoming (1) a descriptor of the finest diamonds, (2) a metonym for a rich mine or other lucrative venture and (3) an ostentatious display of jewelry (as both noun “a golconda of ropes and gems”) and adjective (“a golcondic array”)).

A golcondic display: Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark (b 1972) wearing the Danish parure including the Ruby Tiara.

The grand ruby and diamond wreath tiara from the Danish ruby parure is an illustrious piece with a notable provenance.  Worn by generation of women from the Swedish and Danish royal houses, it was constructed from hair ornaments worn at Napoleon Bonaparte’s (1769–1821; leader of the French Republic 1799-1804 & Emperor of the French from 1804-1814 & 1815) imperial coronation, a grand event befitting the status of an emperor who saw himself as Charlemagne’s successor albeit one who would preside over something more dynamic than the recently dissolved Holy Roman Empire.  Attuned to the importance of spectacle, Napoleon actually provided funds for his marshals to purchase jewels for their wives so his coronation procession at Notre-Dame would glitter.  That wasn’t an inexpensive matter because in the euphoria of victory, Napoleon had created a remarkable (though politically shrewd) eighteen, topping even the dozen batons a similarly intoxicated Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) would hand out in 1940.

One of the wives ended up with a suite which included a necklace, girandole earrings, a large corsage brooch and two hair ornaments in the shape of branches, with pavé-set diamond leaves & ruby berries.  In the way the royal families of Europe operated, jewels often accompanied daughters and nieces as they were passed from palace to palace, country to country as marriage arrangement demanded and the coronation suite moved for some time to Sweden before, in 1869 arriving in Denmark where they’ve since remained, their destination chosen because the ruby set is red & white, the colors of the Danish flag.  In 1898 the ornaments were connected to become a kind of bandeau which, in 1935, was re-modelled into a full wreath tiara which, in an unusual disposition, Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000; Queen of Denmark 1947-1972) didn't include in the many jewels she left to her three daughters but bequeathed instead to her grandson, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (b 1968).  The ruby parure was thus earmarked for his spouse although at law, the arrangement had the historically unusual effect of meaning the title to a tiara passed to a man rather than a woman.

Golconda (1953), oil on canvas by René Magritte (1898–1967), The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas.

Depicting a vision of almost identically dressed figures against a background of ordinary Belgium suburban architecture, the men in bowler hats and dark overcoats may be falling like rain drops, floating upwards or suspended in mid-air, indeed, some may be in one state and others in another, the painter giving no hint, movement neither implied nor denied.  The bowler hat was a favourite motif of Magritte and is best known from his later The Son of Man (1964) and although his work is most associated with the traditions of impressionism and surrealism, Magritte was of bourgeois origin and often wore a bowler hat, critics making of that and its relationship to his art what they chose.  The title Golconda was suggested by Magritte’s friend, the poet Louis Scutenaire (1905-1987) and it’s been the subject of much interpretation, commentators variously finding themes of alienation, individualism, repression and economic exploitation.