The Story of Indian Jewellery

Jewellery made of natural materials

In early India, people fashioned jewellery out of natural materials found in abundance all over the country-seeds, feathers, leaves, berries, fruits, flowers, animal bones, claws and teeth. Even today such jewellery is used by the different tribal societies. Interstingly, these tribal jewelry items are also famous worldwide as high fashion jewelry! Excavations at Mohenjodaro and other sites of the Indus Valley civilization have

unearthed a wealth of ornaments. It appears that both men and women of that time wore jewellery made of gold, silver, copper, ivory and precious and semi-precious stones. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are abound with descriptions of ornaments and the code of Manu defines the duties of the goldsmith. By the third century B.C., India was the leading exporter of gemstones, particularly diamonds. Gold was usually imported into the country, a practice prevalent even during the Mughal period.

Ornaments for every part of the body
In India the ornaments are made practically for every part of the body. Such a variety of ornaments bears the testimony to the excellent skills of the jewellers in India. The range of jewellery in India varied from religious one to purely aesthetic one. Jewellery was crafted not just for humans but also for the gods, ceremonial elephants and horses. The craft of Indian jewellery was given a royal patronage right from the ancient times. The rajas and maharajas vied with each other to possess the most exquisite and the most magnificent pieces of jewellery. Temple complexes supported many different styles of jewellery-scented sandalwood bead necklacesand other beaded jewelry, the prayer bead or the rudraksh (berry of the elaocarpus canitrus) necklace, multicoloured silk and gold thread necklaces.

Jewellery in India fulfils many functions and wearing it has several implications. At the most obvious level, it is a form of adornment satisfying Man's innate desire to beautify himself. However, jewellery also serves as an identity marker, as security, and as symbol of social contracts. For Hindus, jewellery is associated with most religious ceremonies, especially the samaskaras (stages of life) such as the namkarna (naming ceremony) or the vivaha (marriage). To signify marital status, Hindu women must wear the mangalsutra or the thali, which consist of gold pendants strung in a certain combination with other beads. Traditionally, a goldsmith pierces a child's ear with a gold pin twelve days after it is born.

Jewellery as investment

In the Hindu, Jain and Sikh community where women do not inherit landed property, precious metal jewellery was a major component of the streedhana (gifts given to a woman at the time of her marriage). Jewellery, because of its easy convertibility into cash, was thus regarded as security and investment.

Jewellery in India fulfils many functions and wearing it has several implications. At the most obvious level, it is a form of adornment satisfying Man's innate desire to beautify himself. However, jewellery also serves as an identity marker, as security, and as symbol of social contracts. For Hindus, jewellery is associated with most religious ceremonies, especially the samaskaras (stages of life) such as the namkarna (naming ceremony) or the vivaha (marriage). To signify marital status, Hindu women must wear the mangalsutra or the thali, which consist of gold pendants strung in a certain combination with other beads. Traditionally, a goldsmith pierces a child's ear with a gold pin twelve days after it is born.

The goldsmiths

In India, goldsmiths are usually men and are referred to by a variety of names depending on the region-sonar, swarnakara, panchallar, or thattan. In the Vedic period, goldsmiths had a much higher standing than most other artisans, perhaps because they worked with a precious metal. The goldsmiths had royal patrons. Historical records show that Indian jewellers mastered quite early the various skills required to make fine jewellery-mixing alloys, moulding, drawing fine wires, setting stones, inlay work, relief, drawing gold and silver into thin wires, plating and gilding. In smaller places, the goldsmith may perform all the processes involved in producing a finished piece. In cities, the different operations are undertaken by separate people-the goldsmith prepares the skeletal framework, the chatera engraves, the kundansaaz or jaria sets the stones while the meenasaaz enamels it.
Unique styles

Different regions of India boast of jewellery making styles unique to them -in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh fine filigree work in silver, in Jaipur the art of enamelling or meenakari, temple jewellery from Nagercoil and kundan or the setting of semi-precious or precious stones in gold from Delhi. A wide variety of silver beads are found all over India, especially in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

In filigree work, patterns of leaves, flowers, butterflies, birds and geometrical shapes are made with silver wires of varying thickness. The skilled jewellers draw out fine wires of silver mixed with a little bit of lead and make an outline of the pattern in thick wire. Fine wires are then collected inside the framework to create a delicate lace-like appearance in silver jewelry

Meenakari and kundan are the styles of jewellery making influenced by the Mughals and are usually used in combination to make jewellery that can be worn on both sides such as chokers and necklaces. The temple jewellery of Nagercoil consists of traditional gold ornaments studded with red and green semi-precious stones. These were used as offerings to the Gods and hence the name. Today, some of these designs are being made in silver and then washed with gold.
In Assam, soft 24 carat gold is fashioned into earrings and necklaces modelled on the local flora and fauna-earrings like the hona, which replicate the orchid and the lokaparo, which consists of two birds placed back to back.

In Nagaland, gold is used to craft imitations of the human head and long funnel shaped beads which are used in combination with shells, animal claws and teeth and precious and semi-precious stones.

The designs in solid gold jewellery of Tamil Nadu and Kerala are inspired by nature. The paisley motif or the ambi, rice grains, the cobra's hood, melon and cucumber seeds are some of the common motifs.

Silversmiths of Himachal Pradesh craft large ornaments, which have a very delicate and intricate appearance. Headdresses called chak, long earrings and large nose-rings with papal leaf or bird motifs are the specialties of the region. In Ladakh, silver charm boxes and headdresses called perak with rows of turquoise, cornelian, coral and agate stitched onto it are quite common.