318 / 822
LIFESTYLES
Eternal India
encyclopedia
JEWELLERY
The Heritage of Indian Jewellery
India is a land of varied cultural affluences, and the meeting
point of eastern and western cultural movements. The religious
exchanges, political upheavals frequent inversions made her to
A female figure decked with jewels
Coiffures: The hair is arranged in
Sikha
on one head and tied
up with lines of pearls, a pendant on the forehead and a coiled
jewel piece in the center to complete the beautiful coiffure.
absorb the qualitative changes in her long-drawn heritage. As a
result the intriguing blend of several cultural elements are suitably
convulse into the main stream of deep rooted Indian heritage. From
the times of Indus Valley to the contemporary times, certain ele-
ments carry the tinge of Indian flavour which made Indian life style
a living tradition. The Indianness is strongly expressed through
music, dance, theatrical arts, sculpture, architecture, painting, lit-
erature, pottery, jewellery, textiles, wood work, metal work and so
on. All these art forms have been subject to continuous changes
due to the changing religious and philosophical ideologies and the
mode of manifestations. These changes obviously seen in the ex-
pressive forms of art. Instinct for ornamentation is inherent in
human nature and this instinct, universally persists from primitive
to modern days. Decorating one’s self, decorating an object of
worship, ornamenting the environment is natural instinct, flour-
ished in the form of decorative art. Jewellery is one of the very
significant aspect of decorative art, reaching the height of applied
dimensions,’ subject to continuity and change concerning to the
matters of delicacy and refinement.
Articles of personal adornment have always caught the imagi-
nation of man, practically in all cultures. The earliest articles of
adoration were invariably made out of the materials available at the
site of cultural development. Wood, ivory, bone, clay and shells
were the earliest material used before the discovery of metal and
gems. As the advancement took place in making of tools, the primi-
tive concept and skills rapidly acquired the phase of sophistication.
The use of gold in making jewellery really opened up the imagina-
tion of man, reaching the height of creativity in applying the concept
to expressive form.
Indian jewellery has created an aura of charm and grace
throughout the world. The heritage of jewellery dates back as early
as the Indus Valley culture. The jewellery of Indus Valley people
comprised fillets, ribbons, brooches, hair-pins, ear and nose orna-
ments, necklaces and pendents, armlets, bracelets and bangles,
finger-rings and girdles. Ivory, pottery, gold were used in making
jewellery. Fillets and ribbons of gold were worn round the head
both by males and fe-
males to keep the hair
in
position.
Brooches
were of the shape of
‘8’ and four pointed
star.
Ear
ornaments
took the form of but-
tons, studs, drops and
pendents.
The
nose-
pins in gold consisted
of convex discs with
cabled
border,
or
plane,
cog-well
shaped discs threaded
by means of a pin. De-
pressions on them were
inlaid alternately with lapis lazuli and red stone. Necklaces com-
prised beads of one or more shapes strung together with pendent
beads or a single pendant made of gold, silver, stone or faience.
When there was more than one string, appropriate spacers with
terminals at the ends were introduced to control the strands. Arm-
lets, bracelets or bangles were found in very large numbers in ter-
racotta, shell, stoneware, copper, silver and gold. Besides odd
pieces of jewellery, three hoards were found at Mohenjodaro and
one at Harappa. The Harappa hoard, which is a representative
collection, consists of gold, silver, stone, faience and shell objects.
Jewellery in Literature
The major breakthrough in the Indian cultural science is the
evolution and development of Vedic society. The Vedic society
portray the multi-farious growth in the concept of adornment fol-
lowed with a dimensional approach in designs and set patterns.
The Vedic gods are always described as fully decked with varied
kind of jewellery.
Rig Veda,
the oldest textual sources for the
Indian cultural studies make clear references of the terms like
Ratna
and
Vajra.
It is to be contended that the extent of Vedas
contain compositions of thoughts of an advanced civilisation further
strengthens that gems were in use in India from times of antiquity
of which can not easily be decipheral. The other works which con-
tain the descriptions of gems and jewellery are Kautilya’s
Arthasastra,
Varahmihira’s
Brihat Samhita, Garuda Mahapurana,
Skanda Purana, Natyashastra
and
Abhilashitartha Chintamani.
During the medieval times with the growth of regional languages a
large member of poetics emerged. The description of the gods; and
humans always covered with fabulous ornamentation.