which famous gem was said to have been stolen from a hindu statue
Hope Diamond According to specious accounts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the original form of the Hope Diamond was stolen from an eye of a sculpted statue of the goddess Sita, the wife of Rama, the seventh Avatar of Vishnu. However, much like the "curse of Tutankhamun", this general type of "legend" was most likely the invention of Western authors during the Victorian era,[56] and the specific legends about the Hope Diamond's "cursed origin" were invented in the early 20th century to add mystique to the stone and increase its sales appeal as well as increase newspaper sales. It fueled speculation that humans possessing the gemstone were fated to have bad luck with varying reports of undetermined veracity. A report in 2006 in The New York Times, however, suggested that "any hard evidence linking it to tragedy has yet to be officially proven."[57]
Diamond mining in India India's unique status as a producer of diamonds continued to fascinate Europeans. Marco Polo traveled along the coast of India in 1292, and recorded tales he heard about diamonds being found in deep mountain valleys made nearly inaccessible by heat, lack of water, and venomous snakes.[4] The French traveler Jean Baptiste Tavernier visited the Krishna River diggings in 1665, and estimated that about 60,000 people were mining diamonds.