The historical Indian cut

The historical Indian cut, sometimes called the Mughal cut or the old Indian cut, refers to the cutting style practised in the Indian subcontinent from approximately the seventeenth century onward, predating the development of the modern brilliant cut in Europe. The historical Indian cut prioritised retention of carat weight from the rough crystal over geometric symmetry or maximised light return, producing stones with irregular outlines, asymmetric facet patterns, and high crown and pavilion proportions.

The cut is associated with Mughal-period diamond production from the Golconda mines, which supplied much of the European royal diamond stock from the seventeenth through the early eighteenth centuries. Most major historical European royal diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor (in its pre-1852 cut), the Orlov, the Hope (in its earliest cuts), the Regent (in its earliest cuts), and many others, originated in the Indian cut style before being recut to European standards in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The contemporary Indian cut

In contemporary trade usage, Indian cut sometimes refers to the standard modern cutting practice of the Indian diamond cutting industry, principally based in Surat. The contemporary Indian cut is generally identical in form to the international standard cuts (round brilliant, princess, emerald and so on), with cutting executed to international standards. There is no distinct geometric Indian cut in the contemporary trade sense.

However, the term Indian cut is sometimes used in a slightly pejorative sense to refer to commercial-grade diamond cutting that prioritises weight retention over cutting precision, producing stones with slightly oversized girdles, asymmetric facets, and lower light return than premium cutting. This usage is unfair to the broader Indian cutting industry, which produces stones across the full range of cutting quality, but the usage persists in some trade contexts.

The mixed cut and the polki tradition

The traditional Indian polki and kundan setting practice uses uncut and irregularly faceted diamond pieces, called polkis, set in foil-backed gold or silver mountings. The polki is not a single cut but a category of irregular natural-form or minimally-faceted material. The cut style emerged in the Mughal court and continues to dominate the traditional bridal jewellery vocabulary in northern India.

The polki tradition is distinct from the historical Indian cut in that polkis are deliberately less worked, retaining more of the natural crystal form, while the historical Indian cut involves more substantial faceting although in proportions and patterns different from European brilliants. Both reflect Indian lapidary preferences for the texture and flat mounting that suits the foil-backed kundan setting style.

The recut question

The recutting of historical Indian-cut diamonds to modern European standards, executed extensively from the eighteenth century onward, is one of the recurring questions in diamond history. The recut typically reduced the carat weight by twenty to forty percent in exchange for better light return and modern symmetry. The Koh-i-Noor was recut in 1852 from one hundred and eighty-six carats to its current one hundred and five and six tenths carats, a reduction of approximately forty-three percent. Many other major historical stones underwent similar recutting.

The recutting was viewed at the time as a clear improvement, since the European cutting standards produced more brilliant stones. From contemporary perspectives, the recutting represents cultural loss: the historical Indian cuts had aesthetic and historical significance independent of the brilliance question, and the recut versions cannot be reversed. The few major historical Indian-cut diamonds that survive in their original form, principally in museum collections, are correspondingly rare and significant.