Silver and Gold

THE AMRAPALI COLLECTION

& 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

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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

Haar (necklace) Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Gold, mother of pearl, rubies, emeralds AF2013.03.106

Earrings Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.02.163i, ii

Anwat (toe rings) Thar desert, Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Silver, copper AF2013.08.106i, ii

Bazuband (armband)

Shekhawati, Rajasthan, 19th–20th century

Silver AF2013.07.015

Karaala (anklets)

Udaipur, 19th–20th century

Rajput & Daangi community

Silver AF2013.10.049i, ii

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

fig 1 Plaque

Begram, Afghanistan, 1st–2nd century

Carved ivory

G. Dagli Orti / De Agostini / UIG

connotations. Through their forms, designs and decorative motifs, ornaments functioned as powerful visual representations of traditional thought systems and beliefs and have, in no small measure, been instrumental in the transmission of culture through time and space. Each piece of jewellery is a time machine that carries us into the past to reveal the unbroken flow of ornament forms and designs, and the persistent continuity of manufacturing techniques across several thousand years.

The ancient city of Begram, site of Kapisa, the summer capital of the Kushan empire, lay on the Silk Road not far from Kabul, connecting modern-day Afghanistan to India and China, and westwards to the Mediterranean, Egypt and thereon to the Roman empire. Archaeological excavations in the early 20th century yielded a range of luxury objects, including Roman glass, Chinese lacquerware and an array of ivory and bone plaques intricately carved with figures of bejewelled men and women (Fig. 1). The plaques have been attributed to the first or second century CE and are “generally thought to originate either from north-central or southern India.”2 They provide an invaluable visual reference of

fig 2 Baataa (ear plugs) Ajmer, Rajasthan/Gujarat, late 19th century

Rawat community Silver, lac AF2013.02.038i, ii

Baataa (ear plugs) Gujarat, 19th–20th century

Silver AF2013.02.054

Kundal/Pokhani (earrings) Junagadh, Gujarat, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.02.093

Pokhani (ear plugs) Saurashtra, Gujarat, 19th–20th century

Bharwad/Patel/Rabari community

Gilded silver AF2013.02.094

fig 3 Gajje addigai (necklace) Kerala, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.03.012

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

volume. A few more examples will suffice to establish the correspondence. Male and female terracotta images from the ancient site of Chandraketugarh, in Bengal, dating to the Shunga era (second to first century BCE) wear a profusion of jewellery, the plasticity of clay allowing the artist to depict them in great detail (Fig. 2). The

neck-hugging collar necklace seen on the yakshini appears to be decorated with floral designs and its resemblance to the rigid silver torque— chamel from Uttar Pradesh (Fig. 3) is noticeable. Designs and forms of the bracelets from southern India (Fig. 4) and the anklets from Gujarat (Fig. 5) all look strikingly similar to the ones adorning the

fig 3 Chamel (necklace) Rampur/Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, 19th–20th century Silver AF2013.03.006

female figure; even the beads in the girdle around her hips bear close resemblance to silver and gold beads (Figs 6, 7) that are even today manufactured in different parts of the country.

Similarly, a yakshini statue from the secondcentury Shunga period, is adorned with a

fig 4 Kaikappu (bracelet) Tamil Nadu, 19th–20th century

Silver

AF2013.08.049

cornucopia of jewels (Fig. 8). The massive torque around her neck is clearly an early iteration of the hasli that became ubiquitous in the late 19th century (Figs 9, 10); even the flat collar necklace that adorns another yakshini (Fig. 11) who poses with a parrot on her shoulder, is seen in staggering variations on images in period

fig 5 Ghavla (anklet) Banaskantha, Gujarat, 19th–20th century

Patel community Silver

AF2013.10.031

fig 6 Kamarpatta (waist band) Maharashtra, 19th–20th century

Silver

AF2013.06.058

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

provided a veritable smorgasbord of shells, polished stones and shimmering scales. And, over time, the earth brought forth its buried riches in the form of metals and gemstones. Attracted by the textures, forms and colours of all this material, humans shaped, crafted and constructed body adornments; captivated by the subtle energies that lay embedded within each object, they placed them on various parts of the body, thereby embellishing the corporeal and activating the metaphysical. Transforming the persona, jewels function as powerful symbols with supernatural powers, emitting messages, but also possessing magical powers over life

itself—boosting fertility, ensuring the survival of progeny, bestowing health, conferring wealth, attracting love and even regulating destiny. Jewels are, therefore, powerful artistic, cultural and historic artefacts coded with meanings that go far beyond the immediately visible. The “drama of socialization”2 that plays out in jewels is infused into the layers of meanings that are embedded in a single piece of jewellery. In fact, the jewels on a person’s body function as a biometric storehouse of information.

Gems and jewels mark the stages in an individual’s life. They commemorate births and provide a passage for the soul after death; jewels celebrate weddings; display caste affiliations; signify gender and, importantly, regulate the relationship of humans with the world of spirits and magic. Jewellery activates the mind, channelizes energy and conspicuously beautifies the body that it adorns. Jewels function as a language of visual communication, whose etymology is infinite but comprehensible to only those who understand it.

The most common word for adornment in India is alamkara, a Sanskrit term that refers to the enhancement of the lyrical beauty of poetry and the magical-realism of prose with tropes such as similes and metaphors. In his seminal essay titled Ornament, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy examined the meaning and context of the term alamkara, inferring that the etymology of the term implies fulfilment, satisfaction, completion and that which creates beauty; he also used the term in the context of adornment of the body and enhancement of beauty with jewels, cosmetics, flowers, textiles and even inking the body with

fig 1 Woman Preparing to Meet her Lover from the Kavipriya of Keshav Das Udaipur, Rajasthan, c. 1640 Opaque watercolour on paper

National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Page, F1991.89

fig 2 Mukut (crown) Rajasthan, 19th–20th century Gilded silver AF2013.01.026

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

attacked by acids. They are metals of unlimited potential—elastic, malleable and ductile and can be wrought into extraordinary forms. Beaten into thin sheets, silver and gold can be shaped into strikingly abstract forms, such as the torque and pair of ear plugs, both from Kutch, Gujarat (Figs 7, 8); although completely devoid of any ornamentation, both jewels are telling examples of the plasticity of the metal. Silver and

fig 6 Amulet pendants

South India, late 19th century

Gold AF2016.05.005

fig 7 Tok (necklace)

Nakhatrana, Kutch, Gujarat, late 19th century

Jat community

Silver

AF2013.03.036

fig 8 Pokhani (ear plugs)

Saurashtra, Gujarat, 19th–20th century

Bharwad/Patel/Rabari community

Gilded silver

AF2013.02.104i, ii

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

power and purity of the gemstone and set it in such a manner that enabled it to work its magic.

A navaratna bazuband (Fig. 1), or armlet, is set with nine gems corresponding to the heavenly bodies. The ruby, representing the Sun, is in the centre, while gems representing the other planets and the lunar nodes are arranged around the ruby in a strictly prescribed order. The artist has then enclosed the gems within a series of hexagons, the form symbolizing unity and order of the universe, and incorporated design elements, such as diamond-set flower petals on either side. The gold framework has then been embedded into white nephrite jade—the gem supreme that protects, heals and instils tranquillity—thereby elevating the jewel to another realm and transforming it into a cogent entity. He/she was thus, “both procreator/genetrix, begetter/conceiver of all the concepts endlessly poured into the jewel object.”8

The craftsman worked in a small workshop, often attached to his home. His tools were simple

and usually consisted of a furnace, crucible, blowpipes, anvils, a variety of tongs, hammers, pincers, files and chisels. Also used were an iron plate, perforated with holes of different sizes for drawing wire for filigree work, moulds, dyes and the raw materials required for manufacture. The greatest tool at his command were his hands,9 which he used with the greatest dexterity. He was able to beat, manipulate, form, twist and press metal into any shape. Every piece of jewellery, therefore, bears the fingerprints of its maker. It is because of his complete reliance on his hands and tools that every year artisans all around the subcontinent douse their furnaces and offer prayers to their implements and to Lord Vishwakarma on one special day, known as Vishwakarma Jayanti, which usually falls between September 16 and 19.

Manufacturing techniques were usually quite straightforward, and a single piece was generally a combination of several techniques. The araipatti

fig 2 Araipatti (belt) South India, 19th–20th century Silver, gilded silver, glass AF2013.06.050

(Fig. 2), a belt from Tamil Nadu, for example, is crafted from silver but the medallions set into the square panels in front, featuring birds and animals, are worked in repoussé and gold-plated; soldering, hammering, chasing, etching, weaving and even stone-setting are some of the manifold skills that have been employed in its manufacture.

A pair of magnificent bani baju (Fig. 3), cuff bracelets from Gujarat, have been constructed in horizontal sections and then soldered together. Each horizontal band employs a different technique. Simple hammering, beautiful pierced work, known as opus interrasile, chiselling and chasing all come together seamlessly to result in a dramatic yet elegant piece of jewellery. Two hasli necklaces, one from Gujarat (Fig. 4) in the western-most corner of the subcontinent and the other from Assam (Fig. 5) in the far east, manifest similar idioms. Solid metal wire has been shaped into a necklace and then engraved, as in the case of the former, or decorated with applied motifs, in the latter. The gold sheet of a

pendant from southern India (Fig. 6) has been worked in repoussé, drawing into relief the figure of Goddess Lakshmi seated on a pedestal, a vase of flowers below, flanked by lustrating elephants and outlined with decorative details. Furthermore, a large cabochon ruby delineates the face of the goddess, while rubies have been set into her arms and legs, and cabochon emeralds highlight the bodies of the elephants and the flowers. To protect and support the pendant, the soft gold sheet has then been fitted onto a silver plate—a complete visualization of not only design and form but also technical aspects like the longevity and sturdiness of a jewel that might be worn at all times.

By and large, it was the jeweller-artist who conceptualized and designed the jewels. His vision, aesthetics, creativity, conception of form and his skill in giving shape to superstition, belief and imagination can be seen in jewel after jewel. The perfectly symmetrical and evenly coiled thin

To acknowledge the creativity, beauty and craftsmanship of each piece, is to recognize it as a work of art.

(Fig. 47) is beautifully stylized, yet the abstraction does not obscure the image of the beast. While the miscellaneous decorative details on the makara-head bracelet (Fig. 48), such as spheres, lines and dots, appear as “irrational factors intruding in the area of design,”13 the symmetry, balance and arresting form of the ornament remains intact. Similarly, some items like the curved boat-shaped toe ring (Fig. 49) and large nose rings (Figs 50 and 51) as well as unwieldy anklets (Fig. 52) that do not conform to the form of the body, might call into attention “jewel comfort,”14 for the person to whom it was de rigueur the “question of its convenience or comfort was irrelevant”15; the form, its symbolism and function go far beyond mere adornment and they are visually stimulating.

49 Toe-ring Karnataka, late 19th century Silver AF2013.11.007

fig 50 Nath (nose

Himachal Pradesh, 19th–20th century Silver, glass AF2013.04.004

fig 51 Nath (nose ring) Uttarakhand, 19th–20th century Gold, stones, pearls AF2013.04.051

52 Goda

Orissa, late 19th century Silver AF2013.10.061

To acknowledge the creativity, beauty and craftsmanship of each piece, is to recognize it as a work of art. The silver- and goldsmith’s ability to visualize design concepts, transform the intangible into reality, coupled with his knowledge of materials, estimation of size and weight, and construction of each piece in relation to its placement on the body is the genius of the Indian craftsman and his incredible creativity. In his introduction to Coomaraswamy’s The Indian

Notes

1. Tedesco, P., “Sanskrit śílpa- ‘Adornment; Craft’.” Language 23, no. 4 (1947): 383–88. Accessed December 28, 2020. doi:10.2307/410298.

2. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., “Indian Art.” StudiesinComparativeReligion 15, no. 3 & 4 (1983): 5–6. http://www. studiesincomparativereligion.com/ Public/articles/Indian Art-by_Ananda_K_ Coomaraswamy.aspx

3. Rig Veda, Book 10 Hymn 81. https://www. sacred-texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv10081.htm

4. Griffith, Ralph T. H., TheHymnsofthe Rgveda, Vol. II (New Delhi: Low Price Publications, 2004), 496–497.

5. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., The Indian Craftsman (London: Probsthain & Co., 1909), 13–14.

Craftsman, C.R. Ashbee juxtaposes craftsmanship (that which is made by hand) with industry (machine manufacture) concluding that there is no reason why one should replace the other, rather that they should be the “counterpart one of the other,”16 and concludes, “who knows, perhaps Visvakarma is the god for whom we in the West in our spiritual reawakening are in search; possibly he can help us!”17

6. Since they wore the janeu, or sacred thread, and performed religious ceremonies, they considered themselves akin to Brahmins, the uppermost caste.

7. Balakrishnan, Usha R., and Thomas K. Seligman, EnduringSplendor:Jewelryof India’s Thar Desert (Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2017), 36.

8. Untracht, Oppi, JewelryConceptsand Technology (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 118.

9. Ibid, 211.

10. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., The Indian Craftsman (London: Probsthain & Co., 1909), 75.

11. Hendley, Thomas T., IndianJewellery , extracted from the JournalofIndianArt, Vol. 12, Nos. 95-107 (repr. Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1995), 36–37, pl. 34.

12. Balakrishnan, Usha R., and Oppi Untracht, IconsinGold:JewelryofIndiafromthe Collection of the Musee Barbier-Mueller. Ed. Laurence Mattet (Paris: Somogy Art, 2005), 63.

13. Untracht, Oppi, JewelryConceptsand Technology (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 76–77.

14. Ibid.

15. Untracht, Oppi, JewelryConceptsand Technology (New York: Doubleday, 2011), 88.

16. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., The Indian Craftsman (London: Probsthain & Co., 1909), xiv.

17. Ibid, xv.

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