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, 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.
