Women over the world as a basic instinct have an obsession for ornaments and as Indians it is something we are most attached to. No Indian woman’s wedding Trousseau is complete without a large chunk of the gleaming yellow metal studded with sparkling brick sized stones. But is it only gold that impresses them or are they crazy about any form of jewelry? Never for a moment doubt that wearing costume jewelry is a new found craze in India. The use of Glass beads as everyday jewelry can be dated back to the Mauryan & Sunga periods in Indian ornaments. It is only the western world that recognised this trend very late, in the 20th century.
The significance of wearing Jewelry in India varies from place to place and community to community. There is a wide range of Jewelry used by Indian women through ages (i.e an ornament for each part of the body). It is believed that wearing of Jewelry came into existence not only for beauty, but also a kind of therapy where in it is said that piercing nose and ear is a kind of acupuncture treatment and would bring down the mental disturbances and makes women more patient and strong enough to face obstacles in life. Bangles in hands and anklets in legs make them slender. Similarly the naval chain or gold belts would maintain the girth of the waist and the Metti (toe ring) increases fertility by encouraging the production of reproductive hormones.
The truth in this has to be gauged only by experts and since I am not one I’ll skip to the part where there is a name and description for jewelry that adorns each part of our body – in accordance to the vedic traditions.
In my next blog I shall talk about the Indian ornaments starting from the Vedic period (with probable background with the passing of centuries)
Cheers
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