Indian Accessories

India’s true culture and heritage rest with its tribal community because the tribal people have preserved the ancient arts and crafts in their proper form while the rest of India had been continuously influenced by globalization.

Ethnic tribal jewelry could be surely included in the preserved craft. India has several types of tribal folks, each differing from one another in many ways and the jewelry created by each is also unique in its own style. They use materials available in the local area to make jewelry that is charming in its rustic and earthy way. They craft their jewelry using primitive tools and its appeal lies in its chunky, unrefined looks. The raw materials like bone, wood, clay, shells, crude metals etc are generally used to make tribal jewelry and the shapes are basic.
The Rajasthan tribes, Banjara, create colorful heavy jewelry and belts that are decorated with shells, metal-mesh, coins, beads and chains. Their very famous silver jewelry, a vast collection of earrings, bracelets, bangles, armlets, anklets, hairpins and necklaces, have a unique oxidized appearance and are usually embellished with tiny silver bells and color stones.
The tribes of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh State produce jewelry of grass, beads and cane and popular traditional ornaments out of silver, wood, glass, peacock feathers, copper and wild flowers. Their women wear chains of one rupee coins.
Meghalaya’s tribes Khasi and Jaintia make a unique type of necklace with thick red coral bead and Garo tribe makes the same with thin fluted stems of glass strung by fine thread.
The tribe of Sikkim called Bhutia has jewelry of gold, silver, coral, turquoise and zee stone.
The picturesque North East Indian state’s tribal jewelry of cane and bamboo is very famous. They also use brass, bone, ivory, silver and gold to make their jewelry that are decorated with colorful beads, blue feathers of birds, green wings of beetles. The tribe called Wanchos creates earrings of glass beads, wild seeds, cane, bamboo and reed while the Karka Gallong tribal women wear heavy iron earrings that are coiled several times, metal coin necklaces and waistbands of leather embedded with stones.
Here special mention should be made about the silver bangles of the Gonda tribe. Some bangles are solid while others are hollow. The jeweler makes the bangle in such a way that once it is worn cannot be removed forever. Bangles for special occasion are removable with a hinge mechanism.

It is only natural for a girl to dream of a fairytale wedding, perhaps the most memorable and the happiest moment in her life. The wedding day, especially in India, marks the beginning of a new life for the girl.

And so she expects that moment to be perfect and grand. In India when a girl child is born her father works hard to earn enough to afford the very best for her wedding and her mother gathers jewelry, vessels and other household articles one by one to gift their daughter. Thus the parents start planning for the auspicious occasion of the girl’s marriage well in advance.

Traditional Jewelry has a very significant place in an Indian girl’s wedding. Wealthy people give very rich attractive ornaments to their daughters as gift while ordinary people give what they can afford to. Moreover the bride will be, from head to toe, adorned with various types of traditional beautiful jewelry. Jewelers, realizing the Indian family’s requirements, employ the most efficient and skilled craftsmen to produce wedding jewelry pieces and sets.

Traditional Indian wedding jewelry is made of first class quality metals. People are mostly inclined to go for gold jewelry since it has a rich and opulent appearance though very costly. However, according to latest trends, silver wedding jewelry as well as copper and white gold ornaments are becoming more and more popular among Indians due to their comparatively lower prices, especially gold-plated silver jewelry, cheaper but having the same looks and attraction of pure gold jewelry, is preferred by a lot of families. Wedding jewelry is often selected only after deciding the wedding dress, so that the jewelry can match and compliment the outfit.
Wedding jewelry embellished with Kundan work is one of the most popular traditional decorative jewelry styles. Ornaments, embedded with beautiful and radiant gemstones, are also loved deeply. Silver as well as gold and copper gemstone wedding jewelry, studded with semi-precious and precious stones are available in various colors and so they are purchased to match and highlight the colors in the wedding outfit. Ornaments, adorned with pearls and jewels having exquisite polki, meenakari work, are some other well-preferred options in wedding jewelry. The diversity in Indian jewelry is well-reflected in India’s wedding jewelry sets and individual ornaments as well.
Wedding jewelry like necklaces, pendants, earrings, bangles, bracelets, anklets, amulets, various rings for finger, nose and toe, hairpins, forehead tikka, girdles and other ornaments are often light weight and not flamboyant. Thin, delicate, light jewelry, in simpler designs and subdued colors are favored by a large section of Indians.

Indian Jewelry is very special and unique characterized by its elegant simplicity and superb craftsmanship. Each part of India produces particular types of jewelry out of different metals and each exhibits its own splendor and charm.

The northernmost state Kashmir brings out rings, chokers, bracelets and earrings made out of blackened silver and polished brass and embedded with semi-precious stones. Tiger stone, coral, turquoise and jade in stained pink, amber and green are also available and these reflect the beauty of the sunset, flowers and trees of the Kashmir Valley. Elephant tusks were mainly imported from East Africa to be carved into marvelous earrings, necklaces and bangles.
Rajasthan State offers brightly colored, light and delicately chased lacquer bangles that bring a dash of colors from their rainbow hues. Also available are bangles having small beads and mirrors studded in the lacquer, which shine and sparkle with every turn of the wrist. Menakari, a form of gold jewelry from Rajasthan is studded with precious gemstones that are later enameled with gold. Magnificent Kundan jewelry is yet another famous art from Rajasthan. Kundan, a semi precious opaque crystal is shaped individually and then soldered and inserted into a dazzling stone.
We get a variety of silver articles from Indian coastal areas such as heavy pieces of silver jewels from Maharashtra and dainty filigree in leaf, star and flower patterns from Orissa. Delhi’s heavy silver bracelets, necklaces, rings and lockets with delicately carved traditional patterns like the paisley leaf, the lotus, the almond, and the mango are in great demand. Andhra Pradesh produces very popular cuff-links, buttons, and earrings of silver embedded in oxidized black metal.
The best Terracotta jewelry found in West Bengal is made from clay with engraved designs. Splendid necklaces, rings, bracelets, anklets, pendants, bangles, and other trinkets are made out of terracotta for women. West Bengal is also famous for Navaratna jewelry, a necklace of nine gems. The nine stones strung together are considered to bring wealth and prosperity to wearer and it protects from various diseases and danger.
South Indian states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu offer temple jewelry made of 22-karat gold and studded with precious stones. In southern India you get ethnic jewelry like Mangamalai, Khasumalai and Mullaimottumalai made of pure gold. The word manga means mango and malai, chain. Thus Mangamalai is a gold chain having small shaped mangoes joined together. In the same way Khasu means coins and Mullaimottu, jasmine buds. Hyderabad is famous for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bangles and other ornaments studded with various colored pearls.

The people of Gujarat state in India are very much noted for their business skills. Broach, an ancient Gujarat port situated on the Cambay Gulf, was an important bisector of the business route to China, Greece,’ Portugal and Persia. Broach played a significant role in the trade and movement of Mughal jewelry, gold, silver, ivory,

pearl, textiles, gemstones and coral to these foreign countries. This advantage helped Broach gradually develop as a hub for stone cutters, artisans and carvers for nearly thousand years. Even today you can see a sizeable diamond cutting factories in some Gujarati cities like Surat, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Navasari. These small scale cutting houses have around 800,000 employees to cut and polish 80—90% of world’s whole diamond production.
As a gesture of gratitude to tribal jewelry and accessories many Gujarati ladies wear key-ring holder an their waist usually made of silver. Jewelry like mangal sutra (a chain tied around the neck by the husband on the wedding day), earrings, necklace, rings and bangles are also very popular among Gujarati women.
Modern jewelry designers have revived the age-old popular tribal jewelry, known as Pachchikam, mostly crafted in Kutch and Gujarat and made this one of the latest fashion statements. The artistic tribal jewelry Pachchikam is slowly replacing gold jewelries. The craftsmen in Gujarat and Kutch prepare this form of jewelry buy cutting semi-precious stones. Some sort of glasswork also is needed in the preparation. Only the few families, who have attained specialization in this type of artwork through their ancestors, can do the fabrication of this jewelry. In the normal course each piece requires 1-2 months to prepare due to the typical climatic constraints.
Other type of traditional jewelry made in Gujarat out of agate, bead and silver are very famous as the exquisite tribal jewelry. Ornaments like ear rings, bangles, nose rings, necklaces etc. are crafted locally and sold out all over the state. Silver-bars are locally procured and later transformed into sheets and wires from which various enchanting silver ornaments are made.
Bhuj, Anjar and Mundra in Kutch district are the main hub of silver jewelry work and Porbandar, Surendranagar, Ahmedabad and Jamnagar in Gujarat also bears a long tradition of supplying excellent silversmiths, who show great skill in creating stunning silver jewelry,. As Tribal Jewelry is a part of Gujarat’s traditional jewelry this work is still done with great care and in styles centuries after centuries using beads, zari, lac etc and this age old tribal ornaments are in great demand among women.