From glass beads to geometric shapes: The evolution of jewellery design in the subcontinent

Wearing a beautiful backless gown in black, she stood on the red carpet in Cannes. But it was her jewellery that really caught everyone's attention - golden chains adorned her back, her hair pulled into a bun with a 'khopar kata', a 'bajuband' wrapped around her arms. She also wore a thick bracelet called 'ratan chur' on her left hand.

Miss Universe Bangladesh 2020 Tangia Zaman Methila's accessories at this year's Cannes were the perfect amalgamation of modern and traditional jewellery of the Indian subcontinent.

They were designed by Lora Khan, the founder of 6 Yards Story, an online jewellery store in Bangladesh.

"When I saw her gorgeous dress, I knew it was a modern look she was going for. But she also wanted a touch of tradition. That's when we came up with this set," said Lora Khan.

"The back piece featured a triangle and straight lines of chains, while the baajuband, hair accessory, and the rings featured circular motifs. "This is the feature of modern jewellery these days, a lot of geometric patterns and a futuristic look. Along with it, we incorporated traditional jewellery pieces like ratan chur, khopar kata, bajuband, and haatphul," she added.

The metal pieces are made of steel with a golden finish.

"As we have no institutions to study or receive training on jewellery making, the designs and the traditional techniques are lost." Md Masud, Office secretary of the Bangladesh Jeweller's Association (BAJUS)

In 2021, Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon also attended Cannes wearing a traditional jamdani shari with a halter neck blouse, with jewelled belts at the back. The belts featured round, as well as tear drop-shaped, jewels.

Not only fashion jewellery (also known as imitation or costume jewellery), gold and silver jewellery designs have also changed over the years.

As I grazed over old jewellery pieces of my mother, aunts and sisters for this article, and a tonne of old wedding videos from the 1990s, I noticed how the designs and motifs have changed.

While traditional gold and silver pieces such as jhumka (chandelier earrings), pearl strings and chokers, pendants, long chains with ball details, kanpasha (ornament encompassing the whole ear), ratan chur, ruli (thin bangles), kankan (thick bangles), jhapta (ornament pinned on one side of the head) etc are still very popular, fashion jewellery has seen many design phases.

From glass beads to Mughal influenced crescents

The Mahasthangarh Museum in Bogura and the Wari-Bateshwar Museum in Narshingdi has a collection of glass and stone beads of many sizes and shapes.

Glass beads were quite common back then, and were made in a wide variety of techniques and shapes. Gold-foil glass beads were found in Mahasthangarh, Chandraketugarh, Harinarayanpur, and Deulpota. Such beads have also been reported in a very limited number from several other sites in the subcontinent.

According to famous bead researcher Peter Francis Jr, the opaque brown and orange-red glass beads are Indo Pacific monochrome glass beads found in Mahasthangarh, Wari-Bateshwar, Chandraketugarh, Harinarayanpur, Deulpota, Mangalkot, and Tamluk.

According to Banglapedia, the cores, flakes, and unfinished beads of crystal, agate, amethyst, jasper and marble reveal that the Mahasthangarh region was a stone bead manufacturing centre.

Historians say that the artisans of the Indus Valley Civilisation created tubular or barrel-shaped objects out of semi-precious materials including carnelian, agate, turquoise, faience, steatite, and feldspar. Then they decorated them with carvings, bands, dots, and patterns, or set them minutely in gold.

Excavations at Mohenjo-daro and Indus Valley unearthed a large number of ornaments worn by people of ancient periods. This has made it possible to believe that both women and men belonging to the ancient period wore jewellery made of silver, ivory, gold, copper, semi-precious and precious stones.

The magnificent Mohenjo-daro necklace currently on display at the Delhi National Museum's jewellery gallery is a testament of this. The almost 5,000-year-old necklace is lined with pendants made of banded agate and jade beads strung by a thick gold thread that passes through each bead's precisely drilled hole.

The paintings at Ajanta and Ellora caves, and the sculptures on the Khajuraho temple and at Bharhut, Sanchi, and Amaravati show a variety of jewellery worn by women and men, kings and commoners.The traditional motifs used in temples like lotuses and peacocks were also featured in the pieces.

The Mughals brought some beautiful jewellery from central Asia (Persia and Afghanistan) and provided the framework for the advancement of both traditional and cutting-edge jewellery-making practices. They included numerous geometrical shapes, the sun, moon and stars, floral, and nature-inspired patterns to subcontinental jewellery.

One of the most famous motifs is the crescent and stem design - often seen in earrings with a short stem at the summit of a crescent, from which a fish is suspended - which became a common element of Mughal jewellery.

They brought many techniques and patterns like meenakari, jadau, kundan, geometric shapes and floral patterns. In the late 16th century, Mughal court goldsmiths combined two techniques – kundan setting and enamelling – creating a new style that is still used in traditional Indian jewellery.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has a collection of Mughal-era jewellery that includes a number of thumb rings. Similar rings are seen in portraits of the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan and their sons in court paintings of about 1610-1620.

One such ring has the technique of setting rubies and emeralds in dense patterns against a ground of chased gold. The thumb ring is enamelled (meenakari) on the inside, as is often the case with Mughal jewellery.

Here, however, the motifs and colours of the enamel are strikingly European and this may suggest that the enamelling was done by a European craftsman at the Mughal court, of whom there were a small number at this time.

Augustin Hiriart of Bordeaux, for example, produced designs for thrones for Jahangir and Shah Jahan and was a skilled enameller.

In the 17th century, as the Europeans travelled to India, they brought their jewellery as well. European influences spread over India and jewellery designs began to change.

Famous jewellery businesses like Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mellerio, and Chaumet Jewels also began creating pieces for Indian Kings and Queens in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cartier included South Indian floral patterns with colourful gems in their creations.

The Taj Mahal Emerald, a 141.13-carat carved emerald, or the Patiala Ruby Necklace, are some of the most elaborate jewellery pieces created by Cartier in the 1920s.

But one thing that was common in the jewellery business was that it was a symbol of wealth, power and might, which was always worn by the kings and queens and the powerful. Jewellery was not a part of a commoner's life.

But with more democratisation, jewellery became a part of people's life. Today women wear their wedding rings on the fourth finger to the thumb, because it is believed that the nerve is connected to the heart of a woman. In the rural areas of Bangladesh, the new bride is given a nose pin by her in-laws, which is a symbol of married women.

Also, Hindu married women are given 'bichua', 'chutki' or toe rings made of silver to be worn on the second toe. It is believed that it increases a woman's ability to give birth.

A shift to more modern designs

Modern jewellery designs are simpler and more minimalistic with clean lines and geometric shapes. They are also made with a variety of materials, including wood, beads, and plastics, in addition to traditional materials like gold and silver.

The shift towards more modern and contemporary styles of jewellery is reflective of the changing social and economic landscape of the Indian subcontinent. As more women enter the workforce and become financially independent, they are seeking jewellery that is practical and can be worn on a daily basis. Modern jewellery is also more accessible and affordable, making it more appealing to younger generations.

Lora Khan, who is an architect by profession and an artist and designer by heart, was mesmerised by the traditional pieces of jewellery her mother and grandmother possessed in their old jewellery boxes.

Delicate flora and fauna engraved on gold bangles, moon and flower patterns woven with gold and silver on earrings and pendants, butterflies captured on hair accessories and bracelets - all these overwhelmed her artistic soul.

Then one day, Lora took her notebook and graphite pencil and started drawing designs that resembled her favourite jamdani saree borders. That is how 6 Yard Story's famous jamdani motif jewellery was born.

The set incorporates a pendant and a pair of earrings made of bronze with a gold and silver finish on top. Besides these modern designs, Lora wants to bring back the old pieces that women from her previous generation wore. She has started a series based on these designs.

She said, "People used to wear gold and silver jewellery before. But now there are many fashion jewellery available in the market - made of clay, metal, wood etc. But the new designs are also inspired by the existing designs."

"For example, chaandbali or moon earring is shaped in a circle or crescent, resembling the phases of the moon. The motifs used in the traditional pieces of jewellery were like this - inspired by nature - flower, sun, moon, butterfly, bird etc. We are recreating the motifs and designs in many mediums".

"While designing traditional jewellery, I didn't have enough design inspiration at hand, as most of my relatives have already exchanged their jewellery with modern pieces. So, I went through old wedding photos and videos and researched online to get ideas for the pieces," said Lora.

"After 1971, the economy changed a lot. People didn't have that much money to themselves. So, the 1970s and 1980s gold jewellery featured a simpler and more minimalist look. There had been a lot of taar or chain designs back then, which gave the effect of an elaborate piece because there was not much gold. Also, the pendant was made of gold but the strings had pearls or beads," said Chidam, a goldsmith, who has been working in the Tanti Bazar area of Old Dhaka for the last 40 years.

"The gold jewellery that comes from the Middle East or Malaysia are very heavy. But the speciality of our goldsmiths is they can recreate the same design with less gold. And customers are looking for modern designs, wearable and affordable designs", said Md Masud, office secretary of the Bangladesh Jeweller's Association (BAJUS).

"As we have no institutions to study or receive training on jewellery making, the designs and the traditional techniques are lost," he opined.

Madhusree Shanchita Smriti is the owner of an online jewellery shop named Rhee. She makes jewellery pieces with seeds, fabric, yarn and metal.

"Women now prefer to wear different fashion jewellery pieces with different outfits. While the traditional gold and silver jewellery are shiny, my seeds accessories are quite off-tone with more earthy colours. Women aged between 30 and 45 years love my jewellery and I think that is what the current trend is now," she said.

People are going for metal and artificial jewellery because precious metals have become quite expensive.

Intricate designs vs smooth simple patterns

The intricacy of modern jewellery has also decreased over time. "The way you can mould a piece of silver, you could not do that with other metals earlier, and even today. Gold and silver are soft metals, easily malleable. So, it was easy to carve intricate designs on them, whereas modern metal is hard to work on. That is why most of the modern metal jewellery has simple geometric shapes," Lora Khan said.

And also, gold is a less reactive metal, which helps it remain shiny for a longer time. On the other hand, copper, steel or other metal loses its shine with time.

Jewellery-making techniques

In the book 'Indian Folk Jewellery (Designs and Techniques)', German writer Waltraud Ganguly mentioned more than 15 jewellery-making techniques that are practised in the Indian subcontinent. They include wire-work, enamel or meenakari, inlay in jade, casting and lost wax method, glass and mirror inlay, granulation and filigree application, kundan, moulding, wax filling, punching, thewa, chasing etc.

"There was a time when jewellery pieces were handmade with techniques like thokai, kaatai (cut), jaali, chila (scraped) etc. These techniques made every piece unique. But then the dice came and the thokai technique was lost. The designs you can bring with a particular technique cannot be recreated with others. This is how a lot of designs and also artisans were lost," said Chidam.

Jewellery in Kamasutra and ancient architecture

Piercing the ear lobes to wear earrings is a practice followed in India from ancient times, and while most women are seen wearing it now, earlier they were worn by men as well.

The ear piercing ceremony or karnavedha was an important ceremony among Indians. We still see this practice in some parts of Old Dhaka.

Prthukarnata or long distended earlobes caused by wearing heavy earrings was once considered a sign of beauty and greatness; hence we find Buddha with long distended earlobes from different periods and from various parts of India.

In fact, Agnipurana describes Buddha (Santatman) as Santatma lambakarnasca gaurangascambaravrtah, which means Santatma (or he who has a tranquil soul), is long-eared, fair, and wears garments.

Jewellery is an essential part of ancient Bangla literature and architecture as well. Charyapada has a verse 'Avoron Soutini Maan', which means 'jewellery pieces are the enemy of love making'.

In the erotic art of ancient India, the figures were always naked, all except for jewellery. Loud jewellery was worn by a woman who wanted to attract the attention of a particular man, while upper-class women usually wore subtle jewellery.

According to the Kamasutra, women would wear a girdle of jingling bells around their waist during sex, ensuring no sound was made, to prove their experience in it.

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