& Silver Gold
Usha R. Balakrishnan VISIONS OF ARCADIA
THE AMRAPALI COLLECTION
Silver & Gold
VISIONS OF ARCADIA
For as long as Indians have adorned themselves, they have sought to wear jewels that conveyed beauty, power and status. Jewels are believed to provide protection, hope, luck and well-being. More than 40 years ago, two friends, united by a passion for the decorative arts, embarked on an exploration of these uni�ue jewels of India. �ey were motivated by the everyday jewels of the people in the villages—to discover the sources of their inspiration and to unravel the complex ritual of adornment that resulted in ornaments being fabricated for every part of the body, from the top of the head to the toes. What resulted were visions of Arcadia, leading to the creation of the Amrapali Collection of Indian Jewellery, one of the largest collections of pastoral silver jewellery in the world.
�e manifold communities that this collection represents come from di�erent religions, with linguistic di�erences and diverse cultural sensibilities, but the land that the jewels encompass is geographically contiguous. Beyond adornment, the Amrapali collection presents a vision of harmony with nature, with forms and motifs that draw upon nature and the cosmos, and materials such as shells, grass and bone. �ey exhibit the amazing technical expertise of the simple gold- and silversmiths. �is volume presents the jewels in all their glory, not as museum objects or as relics of the past but as a visual language communicating design, aesthetics, tradition and, above all, the artistic expression of adorning the body.
Silver & Gold
the amrapali collection
Silver & Gold
Visions of Arcadia
Usha R. Balakrishnan
Mapin Publishing in association with Amrapali Museum
First published in India in 2026 by Mapin Publishing
706 Kaivanna, Panchvati, Ellisbridge Ahmedabad 380006 INDIA
T: +91 79 40 228 228
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in association with The Amrapali Museum
K-14/B, Ashok Marg, C-Scheme, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302001 INDIA
T: +91 141 282 2700
E: info@amrapalimuseum.com www.amrapalimuseum.com
Text © Usha R. Balakrishnan
Photographs © The Amrapali Museum except those listed below:
Alamy Stock Photo: Abhirup Bhar: p. 111 (above)
Michele Burgess: p. 54 (below-left)
Sushil Chikane / ephotocorp: p. 122 (below)
Dinodia Photos: pp. 38 (above), 82
Eraza Collection: p. 113 (above)
Exotica.im 18: p. 119 (above)
imageBROKER / GTW: p. 50 (left)
Shreekant Jadhav / ephotocorp: p. 112 (below)
Maurice Joseph: p. 50 (right)
Franck Metois: p. 38 (below)
Prisma Archivo: p. 86
Shalini Saran / Indiapicture: pp. 54 (below-right), 113 (below)
Ingetje Tadros / Aurora Photos / Cavan Images: p. 127 (above-left)
Dietmar Temps: p. 112 (above)
Travel India: p. 119 (below)
Muthuraman Vaithinathan: p. 114
G. Dagli Orti / DeAgostini / UIG: p. 34
Indian Museum, Kolkata: p. 74
Metropolitan Museum of Art: pp. 69, 77 (below) Museum of Christian Art, Goa: p. 105 (below) National Museum, New Delhi: pp. 77 (above), 106 National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection: p. 102
Picxy.com:
Saurabh Chatterjee: p. 111 (below)
Shutterstock:
Str/EPA: p. 52 (above-right)
Victoria and Albert Museum: pp. 77 (centre), 105 (above), 123
All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
The moral rights of Usha R. Balakrishnan as the author of this work are asserted.
ISBN: 978-93-85360-88-6
Copyediting: Mithila Rangarajan/Mapin Editorial
Proofreading: Marilyn Gore/Mapin Editorial Design: Gopal Limbad/Mapin Design Studio
Cover design and pp. 8–9, 42–43, 58–59, 96–97, 120–121, 130–131, 172–173, 226–227: Prateeq Kumar
Printed in India
CAPTIONS:
Front-cover: Haar (amulet necklace) , Rajasthan (See p. 21)
P. 2: Jhumar (head ornament) , Lucknow (See p. 27, below)
P. 5: Bulaq or kundu (nose ring) , Himachal Pradesh (See p. 218, right)
P. 6: Bazuband (armband) , Rajasthan (See p. 98, below-left)
PP. 8–9: Peacock feathers for Lord Krishna
Back-cover: Gamkharu (bracelets) , Assam (See p. 88 below, p. 92 below)
Note for the reader:
• The captions for images in the book are prefixed by a graphic indicating the position of an image on the two-page spread. The circles indicate the number of images on a spread while the grey circle indicates the position of the specific image on the page, within the spread.
• Images with captions that do not bear any figure number are supplementary images, additional to those referenced in the text.
FOREWORD
IN MATTERS OF TASTE, THERE IS NO DISPUTE
It all started on a hot day in May 1980; the temperature was hovering at 41 degrees Celsius and a loo was blowing across the city of Jaipur. A barefoot couple walked into the offices of Amrapali. The aged man was attired in a soiled white dhoti and kurta, and a cloth with red, yellow and pink stripes was wound in layers around his head. His wife was dressed in a bright mustard ghaghra-choli decorated with mirrors and embroidery, her red odhni draped over her head and drawn over her forehead to cover her eyes. A bulky potli was in the old man’s hands. He silently placed the cloth bundle on the table and untied the knot; with a loud clatter, a mass of silver scattered across the surface, and flashes of gold and sparkles of gemstones glistened through the heap. There were hair ornaments and earrings, necklaces and armbands, massive bracelets and anklets, and even amulets and toe-rings. That day, more than four decades ago, Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera embarked on their collecting adventure.
Captivated by the extraordinary beauty of those jewels, they set out on a journey, pursuing a passion that took them across the length and breadth of the subcontinent. They trudged through villages, befriended pawnbrokers and village elders, visited the workshops of the humble craftsmen and even scoured flea markets overseas; they purchased from dealers, bid at auctions and acquired from village goldsmiths and silversmiths. And, in the process, they have saved hundreds of pieces from the melting crucible, sustained craftsmen, stimulated creativity and forged the continuity of craftsmanship.
Chandan haar (necklace)
Gujarat, 19th–20th century
Gold, emerald, ruby, white sapphire
Amrapali family collection
Bracelet Gujarat, 19th–20th century Gold
Amrapali family collection
Nogri or gajredar bangri (bangle)
Kota/Bundi, Jhalawar, Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Rajput community
Silver
AF2013.08.045
Ahasuta (cuff bracelets) Andhra Pradesh/Orissa, 19th–20th century Silver
AF2022.08.032
Gaam kharu (bracelets) Assam, 19th–20th century Gold, rubies, diamonds, enamel AF2013.08.193
Rajasthan, 19th–20th century
Silver
AF2013.03.084
Rajasthan, 19th–20th century
Silver
AF2013.03.016
Elephant necklace
Haar (necklace)
GENESIS
IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS BEAUTY
Silver and Gold: Visions of Arcadia, The Amrapali Collection of Indian Jewellery explores the rich jewellery tradition of the Indian subcontinent outside the realm of the royal courts.
“Arcadia” refers to an idyllic region of mountainous landscapes, large valleys and plains of ancient Greece, where people lived in rustic simplicity, with plenty and in harmony with nature. While the Mughals and the maharajas have been eulogized as beacons of refined taste and their jewels have excited and preoccupied the imagination of the world, those of arcadian South Asia have been dismissed as “curiosities of craftsmanship,”1 and cast aside as crude and common. However, while royal courts and aristocratic privileges, together with their symbols of power, have long since vanished, it is in the thousands of villages across the subcontinent that the culture of adornment endures.
Among the rural communities of the Indian subcontinent, adornment with jewels and displays of wealth were art traditions of immense beauty but swathed in cultural complexity that few have studied or deciphered. More than any other art form, jewellery and its role, nomenclature, purpose and meaning have all receded in the collective memory, mostly forgotten, and, of late, more and more misremembered and distorted in stories conceived by salesmen to peddle their wares. Sadly, little has been documented and much has been lost, with oral transmission coming to a standstill as these communities settled down, urbanized and embraced modern technology.
For the nomadic, pastoral and tribal people, jewellery served many functions and was saturated with layers of social and religious meanings, suffused with deep symbolic
Pipla (head ornament) Himachal Pradesh, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.13.036
For the nomadic, pastoral and tribal people, jewellery served many functions and was saturated with layers of social and religious meanings, suffused with deep symbolic connotations.
ETHNOS
CARRY ME, CARAVAN
For long, the silver jewellery of the genre presented here has been termed “tribal,” implying that it constitutes the adornment of a segment of society that lies outside the social, economic and political mainstream. The Oxford Dictionary describes “tribe” as “a group of people in a primitive or barbarous stage of development.”1 As anthropological studies of tribes evolved, the description was modified to characterize “tribe” as a “notional form of human social organization based on a set of smaller groups (known as bands), having temporary or permanent political integration, and defined by traditions of common descent, language, culture, and ideology.”2 In the Indian context, accounting for the vast number of tribes and their complex origin stories, as well as their diverse and heterogenous organizational structure, tribes were described much more broadly, as “a large assortment of communities, differing widely in size, mode of livelihood and social organization.”3
There are more than 700 of these communities designated in India, from small foodgathering bands to vast populations of settled agriculturists. They are distributed across the subcontinent (Fig. 1), primarily over five geographical areas: “1) The Himalayan belt, comprising the modern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, the hills of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, 2) Central India, encompassing Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, 3) Western India, including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 4) Southern India, spanning Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, [Telangana,] Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and 5) the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.”4 While their historical antecedents
Amulet necklace
Karnataka, 19th–20th century
Silver AF2013.03.028
Kanthila (necklace)
Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Gold, glass
Amrapali family collection
Jhela (head & ear ornaments)
Uttar Pradesh 19th–20th century
Gold, ruby, turquoise, emerald, pearl, enamel
Amrapali family collection
Jhumka (earrings) Uttar Pradesh 19th–20th century Gold, emerald, rubies, pearls
Amrapali family collection
Earring South India, 19th–20th century Gold
Amrapali family collection
Nose ornament Maharashtra, 19th–20th century Gold, rubies Amrapali family collection
Gamkharu (bracelets) Assam, 19th–20th century Gold, rubies, enamel Amrapali family collection
Gajje addigai (necklace) Tamil Nadu/Kerala, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.03.060
LEGACY
INSPIRING WONDER
There are multiple dimensions to the study of art. To dismiss some forms as archaic or primitive would be a great fallacy. The analytical tools required to grasp and articulate the beauty of jewels go beyond visual perception. It is not enough to explore the physical object, but rather the element in which the beauty of that object becomes manifest; similarly, it is not enough to investigate the source of inspiration, but rather the manner in which that awareness is expressed. It is in the sum of the parts that make up the whole that the life of the object lies, elevating a jewel from a decorative and functional object to a magical entity. Clothes, tattoos, scarification, henna and, most importantly, jewellery, are all enhancements that require the human body as a canvas. But among all these, jewellery is the most pragmatic, for jewels cannot be disassociated from their purpose. Neither dress nor tattoos, cosmetics or henna offers the thrill and narcissistic sensual pleasure derived from metal on skin, the sparkle of gems as the body moves and the illusion of invulnerability that jewellery offers.
The earliest ornaments were products of the hunt. Teeth, claws, horns, tusks, feathers and even the hair of animals were worn as ornaments, perhaps “motivated by the metempsychic belief”1 that the creature’s courage, fierceness and power would pass to the wearer, projecting man’s primacy over the animal. Nature provided an unending supply of raw materials—the brightly coloured feathers of birds, iridescent wings of insects, seeds that provided nourishment, vibrant and intoxicatingly perfumed flowers and even fruits, leaves and vines all became a part of human attire. The seas and rivers
Timaniya (necklace) Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Gold, white sapphires, emeralds, rubies pearls Amrapali family collection
distinctive. The coiled-wire vadlo (See ‘Ethnos’, Fig. 25) is the jewel of the Rabari, while women of the Fakirani Jat community can be identified by the stiff hansli with a rectangular cuboid in the centre (Fig. 36), and the one from Bundi or Kota, in Rajasthan, is characterized by rows of granulated balls attached to a stamped plate but with gilt polish, implying an aspiration for affluence (Fig. 37). Interestingly, most of these stiff necklaces are variously called hansuli, hasli, hansli or hanswi, the term modified to the local
vernacular but all derived from hansuli, meaning “collarbone,” the spot where the jewel rests when worn around the neck.
Distinctive jewels were also identifiers of male members of these communities. The horse-shoe-shaped earring bawaria (Fig. 38) is worn in just one ear by Jat, Patel, Rabari and Banjara men, while the bhungri (Fig. 39) and patan ogania (Fig. 40) are worn together in the helix by male members of the Rabari, Bharwad
fig 37 Hasli (torque) Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Gilded silver AF2013.03.009
fig 38 Man from the Rabari community of
fig 39 Bhungri (ear ornaments)
Kutch, Gujarat, 19th century
Gilded silver
AF2013.02.017i, ii
fig 40 Patan ogania (earring)
Kutch, Gujarat, 19th century
Gilded silver
AF2013.02.161
fig 41 Gokhru (earrings) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, 19th–20th century
Gilded silver
AF2013.02.019i, ii
Rajasthan
fig 51 Dijhaharu/athoor (ear ornaments)
Kashmir, 19th–20th century Gold, diamonds, emeralds, ruby, pearls, enamel AF2024.02.001
fig 52 Nimboli (marriage pendant)
Rajasthan, early 20th century Silver AF2013.05.192
fig 53 Bulaq (nose ornament) Himachal Pradesh, late 19th century Gold AF2013.04.036
fig 54a Borla (head ornament) Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Silver, Lacquer, copper AF2013.01.011
to wear a balu, nose ring, and bulaq, septum ornament (Fig. 53). A Bengali bride is adorned with shank pola, or bangles made from conch shells, on her wedding day, which she then wears throughout the time her husband is alive, while in Rajasthan the bor or borla (Fig. 54 – a, b) and sheeshphul (Fig. 55 – a, b), head
fig 54b Borla (head ornament)
Rajasthan, late 19th century Gold, diamonds, pearls
AF2015.01.005
jewels, are quintessential symbols of a married woman. Even Muslims and Christians (converted from Hinduism in the past) retained such emblems, modified to symbols of their own culture and belief systems. The Kerala Syrian Christian tali, known as minnu, is a leaf-shaped pendant with a cross superimposed on it.
fig 55a Sheeshphul (head ornament)
Rajasthan, 20th century Silver, beads
AF2016.01.001
fig 55a Sheeshphul (head ornament)
Rajasthan, 20th century Silver, beads
AF2021.01.007
wheel, and hence its association with Vishnu, whose weapon, the sudarshana chakra, is one of the attributes he holds in his hand, while his other hand holds the conch. Shaligram are worshipped in their natural form or set into necklaces and waist belts (Fig. 62).
Another powerful amuletic jewel that consolidated the power of the celestial bodies within the solar system was set with nine gems, or navaratna—ruby (Sun), pearl (Moon), coral (Mars), emerald (Mercury), yellow sapphire (Jupiter), diamond (Venus), blue sapphire (Saturn), hessonite (Rahu, the ascending node
of the moon) and cat’s-eye (Ketu, the descending node of the moon). The magnificent necklace from Bengal (Fig. 63) incorporates all the nine kinds of gems in a floral arrangement departing from the usual geometric order—ruby is in the centre, and the other gems arranged clockwise around it. With the combined energy of the gems, the jewel becomes a cogent entity and assumes magnetic powers, drawing powerful positive energies into the individual, while deflecting the negative. When a gem is prescribed for astrological purposes to be worn as a ring, there is also a strict assignment of gem to finger. The ruby, corresponding to the sun, had to be worn only
fig 63 Shri Nathji Haar (necklace) Bengal, 19th–20th century Silver, navaratna gems AF2022.03.003
fig 64 Chud (cuff bracelet) Gujarat, 19th–20th century Silver, stones AF2013.08.042
MATERIALITY
WHERE THERE IS HONEY, THERE ARE BEES
The Creation hymn in the Chandogya Upanishad, among the earliest Indian texts, composed in the first millennium BCE, elucidating man’s quest for knowledge, offers one of the most sublime accounts of the birth of the universe:
“The Sun is Brahman. In the beginning this universe was non-existent. Then it became existent. It grew. It turned into an egg. It lay for the period of a year. It burst open. Then came out of the eggshell, two parts, one of silver, the other of gold. That which was of silver is this earth; that which was of gold is the sky. What was the outer membrane is the mountains; that which was the inner membrane is the mist with the clouds. What were the veins were the rivers. What was the fluid within is the ocean.”2
Time and again, through the centuries, the philosophy of the ancients attributed life and power to metals. Joseph de Acosta, the sixteenth-century Spanish naturalist, combining an empirical and philosophical exploration of the natural landscape of the New World, wrote in his HistoriaNaturalyMoraldelasIndias (The Natural and Moral History of the Indies):
Bracelet Gujarat, 19th–20th century Gold, silver Amrapali family collection
Central India, 19th–20th century
Silver
AF2013.03.097
Central India, 19th–20th century
Silver, glass
AF2013.03.077
fig 33 Char lara haar (necklace for a horse or elephant)
fig 34 Champakali haar (necklace)
CREATION
THE FOUR HANDS OF VISHWAKARMA
ilpi’ is the Sanskrit term for divine art and refers to “the crafts by which Prajapati [the Creator] has fixed the earth, and adorned the sky,”1 while ‘silpin ’ refers to the artist and also the maker of things.2 In later texts, the Creator is referred to as Vishwakarman—vishwa meaning “universe” and karman meaning “maker,” the one who created the universe. He is thus the principal architect of the universe and designer of towns. He constructed the palaces, chariots, weapons of the gods and even their divine ornaments. In the tenth and last book of the Rig Veda, Vishwakarma appears as an important deity and is described as “the one all-seeing god, who, when producing heaven and earth, shapes them with his arms and wings; the father, generator, disposer, who knows all worlds, gives the gods their names, and is beyond the comprehension of mortals.”
Jhumka (earrings) Himachal Pradesh, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.02.115
fig 10 Haar (necklace) Awadh, 19th–20th century Silver, glass AF2013.03.096
11
Uttar Pradesh, 19th–20th century
Silver
AF2013.01.006
Uttar Pradesh, 19th–20th century
Silver, glass, semi-precious stones
AF2013.01.008
fig
Mathapatti (head ornament)
fig 12 Jhumar or saraiki (head ornament)
Acknowledgements
Writing a book on a collection of silver and gold jewellery that spans the length and breadth of India was more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. None of this would have been possible without the vision and far-sightedness of Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera. To them and the Amrapali family, I cannot express enough thanks.
This book would not have been accomplished without my dear friend Pramod Kumar K.G. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of this “dream” project.
I extend my sincere thanks to Surbhi Mathur and Drishti Desai, as well as the entire team at Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my husband, Bala, for his support and encouragement in all my pursuits, and to my son, Aryadita, who is an unrelenting source of inspiration. He provided a touch of class to the book.
Dr. Usha R. Balakrishnan
CRAFTS, DESIGN & FASHION
the amrapali collection
Silver and Gold
Visions of Arcadia
Usha R. Balakrishnan
236 pages, 375 images
9.9 x 13.5” (252 x 343 mm), hc
ISBN: 978-93-85360-88-6
₹4500 | $75 | £55
2025 • World rights
Dr. Usha R. Balakrishnan is the Chief Curator of the World Diamond Museum and a pre-eminent historian of Indian jewellery. She is the author of several publications, including and has co-authored most recently one of the two-volume publication devoted to the fabulous jewels and seminal collection of paintings inherited by the Nizams of Hyderabad. Her curatorial projects include ‘India: Jewels that Enchanted the World’ at the Moscow Kremlin Museum, ‘Enduring Splendor: �e Jewelry of India’s �ar Desert’ at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, and ‘Shringara: Adornment’ at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Museum, Mumbai.
other titles of interest
Crafting Culture (forthcoming)
The Amrapali Collection of Indian Decorative Arts
Pramod Kumar K.G.
crafts of india
Handmade in India (third reprint)
Aditi Ranjan and M.P. Ranjan
