Krishna themed jewellery and Janmasthani

Yesterday, Janmasthami or the birth of Krishna was celebrated across most parts of India. A few sects like mine celebrate it today. On this occassion, I want to present a couple of Krishna themed jewellery that I made recently. One was a part of  the Parampare collection and the other a custom order for a client. Before, I share the pictures  of jewellery with you, here are some of my Janmasthami memories. Check here for older jewellery pieces based on the Hare Krishna movement.

Janmasthami or Krishna Jayanthi

Growing up Janmasthami or Krishna Jayanthi as it was then called was one of the most celebrated festivals at home. While the uber religious would celebrate by visiting a nearby temple, a majority would simply celebrate at home. We drew white line kolams and made stamps of the feet of little Krishna with wet ground rice flour. It symbolised the coming of Krishna into the house. A makeshift altar or mandap would be setup lined with images and figures of Krishna. A miniature swing would be made of small wooden plank and suspened from a nail on the wall or from a knob, for the baby Krishna to swing on. Ofcourse, as with other Indian celebrations, this one too would be incomplete without food.

A variety of savoury snacks – Murrukku, Thenkolal, Seedai along with sweets like appam would be made. In the 90’s there were hardly any snack shops were I lived. So we would make most of it at home.  A better part of the day or two would be spent preparing these snacks with me digging my hands into any maavu (dough) that had to be kneaded or rolled. I loved rolling seedais (a round ball like sweet or savory snack of dough). The savoury ones would be 0.5″ in diameter and the sweet ones would be about 1″. If five different snacks were made, atleast one would flop. Most often than not, the seedais would either crack or go ‘chauk’ (soft).

While the perfect snacks were exchanged with friends and neighbours, the family would have to finish eating the flopped ones. We would grumble and yet manage to polish off the leftovers in a few days. Apart from these snacks, butter and a variety of fresh fruits would be offered. Ofcourse the next day, the fruits would be chopped and made into a fruit salad eating which was mandatory if we wanted to eat the sweets or snacks.

The celebrations

I would set up the altar would be setup by evening. The floral and kolam decorations would be done and food arranged on platters. The worship rituals or the puja came next. Then my dad, clad in pachagatcham Dhothi would hound up one of my guy friends or neighborhood boys. He would then apply  the vertical holy mark of Vaishnavities, the thiruman on his forehead making him the honorary Krishna for the evening. Poor fellows, how they were lured by the promise of appam, seedai and murukku!!  Strangely, not once did my parents ask if I wanted to be Radha. Both my parents and the friend in question would tease me when I would attempt to dress up. When asked about it my parents would say that “Krishna is just born today, he is a baby, leave him alone.” What is even stranger, is that I was never once asked, if I wanted to be Krishna. If Krishna could dress up as a girl (Devdutt Pattanaik, 2018) during his many leelas, why can a girl not dress up like Krishna?

Krishna themed Jewellery

After making a lot of Radha – Krishna jewellery, I thought that it would be interesting to  use Meera’s imagery. Meera or Princess Mirabai was a Rajput princess (in the 16th century) who married Bhoj Raja of Mewar. She was an ardent devotee of Krishna. She loved him and thought of him as her real husband. Through her poetry, and her music – songs she gave herself to him. Frustrated with her, her inlaws made multiple attempts to kill her but each time she miraculously survived. She then left on a pilgrimage to Vrindavan where she lived the rest of her life. Much like Andal, Mirabai is recognised as one of the great saint-poets of India.

This particular necklace is based on a postcard image of krishna playing the flute to accompany Meera’s songs. It is a colourful piece in blue, green and orange representing the range of emotions in Meera’s songs. I have used Peacock studs for the earrings to represent a symbol of Krishna.

Cork Necklace

The second piece is a cork cord necklace with rolled fabric beads. The pendant is that of the Nathdwara Krishna in the Nathdwara style of Pichwai painting. (Pichwai refers to a fabric that can be used to create a temporary shrine or to cover the entry of an existing shrine). Nathdwara is about the duality and femininity of Krishna’s nature. Here he wears a nath (a circular barbell) which is a nose ring, a yellow dress (pithamber) and lots of jewellery. I discussed such a form of divinity in my ideals of beauty post, once before.

For this necklace, the client brief was to create a soft piece – both literal and symbolic. I think I achieved that to an extent by using soft cork cork and cotton fabric. I also made fabric earrings using the Chettinad cotton, blue checked fabric.

Here are some Krishna necklaces that I made in the last few months. What do you think of them? Do you have such interesting memories of festivals or ceelbrations from your childhood or teenage years? Do share them with me.

I have not been a Krishna devotee or celebrated the festival in many years but then listening to the famous Krishna song “Manamohana” brought about all these memories. so Happy Janmasthami folks. Thanks for tuning in.  Here is an Youtube video of the animated version of the song for those who are interested in watching the antics of little Krishna.