Variety of Jewelry Items of Gold.

List of Jewelry Items in India.

A gold necklace with three pendants. Her left arm is fully covered by

Gold armlets, on right arm,  an armlet at the elbow and another one near the wrist.

Multiple Gold bangle bracelets, rings.

Hair ornaments, earrings, necklaces with round and cylindrical beads, chains, belts, coiled ankle bracelets, arm bracelets, and arm rings.

Rich rajas adorned themselves with jewels--on their turbans, on their ears, around their necks, inserted in their nostrils and even between their teeth. The precious objects worn by women were even more numerous. By this time Indian jewelry had acquired special meanings and nomenclature in connection with a variety of religious beliefs, thus every object had its own specific name, indicating its role and form.

For the head alone there were golden wreaths, large brooches, braids made from three bands of gold leaves with a star in the middle set with gems, braids to be placed along the part in the hair, lotus leaves made of gold sheet to be worn at the nape of the neck with bunches of gold flowers next to them, and tiaras in complicated shapes complete with many tinkling pendants.

There were similarly large numbers of individually named ornaments for the forehead, the ears, the nose, the neck, the upper part of the arm, the wrist, the fingers, the ankles, and the toes. A variety of forms were used for the earrings, in which pearls, filigree, gems, and coral appeared in floral compositions based on the contrast between the different colours.

Indian women embedded a jewel in the forehead or pierced the nose in order to wear a jewel in the left nostril. Necklaces were long and different names were given to those made only of pearls and those of gold. They were distinguished according to the number of strings, of which there could be as many as several dozen. Some necklaces were made of a combination of precious stones and pearls, while others were made of amulets in various shapes.

A very early type of Hindu amulet called a nav-ratna was made of a gold plaque with nine planet stones fastened above it. A series of nav-ratnas could be used to form a necklace. Jeweled belts followed the shape of the body and often had extra pieces that reached up to the neck or down to the bracelets worn around the thigh. Ankle bracelets were often linked by tiny decorative chains running down the instep to the rings on the toes.

Jewelry continues to play an important role in modern Indian dress, but frankly the items produced today do not compare with those of the past. On the contrary, the modern ornaments, though lavishly produced, are of only limited artistic interest.