Jewellery in ancient India
Jewellery is worn by all, irrespective of social status or wealth, in India. The essence of India is truly expressed in its style, its craft, its sensibility, belief, rituals and customs. For a country that is geographically, historically and culturally diverse, its jewellery has perhaps, been the only unifying factor.
In India, like other human cultures of the world, jewellery was the earliest art form fashioned by man. Jewellery communicated messages of love, hate, power, hierarchy, marriage, widowhood etc. Gold and jewels came to be associated with the four aspects of life that concerned mankind - power, health, wealth and religion.
Individual items of jewellery, in classical Indian literature, were integral to a plot or served as a link in the story line. In Ramayana, for example, on Sita's wedding day, her father King Janaka presented her the head ornament (Chudamani) that he himself had received from Kubera, the god of wealth, which she later sent to Rama, through Hanuman, to confirm their meeting.
India was a principal production centre for beads by 3000 B.C. The origin of the simple black bead goes back to the 7th millennium B.C. To this day the lowly bead is yet the most auspicious ornament a mother gives her daughter. Lapis lazuli, turquoise, coral, carnelian, jasper and a variety of semi precious hard stones were imported from Indus valley cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Lothal where they were cut shaped and bored and re-exported to destinations beyond India.
Mention of treasures and gold in the Vedas compensates absence of material remains between 1500-500 B.C. In Vedic times the custom of exchanging jewels at weddings was also prevalent. India was the principal supplier of diamond and precious gems by 1st century A.D. The Kushan Empire encompassed a very vast area in which immense sophistication thrived.
The Gupta period (circa A.D.320-600) is marked to have wealth and quality of court life than any other period in Indian history. Jewellery forms on sculptures have been seen to become more stereotypical and stylised, from the post-Gupta Era.
In ancient India, South India was repository of much of the mineral wealth in the country. In the 2nd century the town of Madurai was one of the principal gem markets. The ancient dynasties of the South amassed immense wealth and lavished it with unrivalled profligacy.
The Cholas acquired their wealth through military conquests and held a monopoly over the gold mines and the pearl fisheries and gems of Ceylon. There was very little infliction of the Mughal culture despite their continuous invasion into the south.
Kautilya (4th century B.C) declared that the trade route across Dakshinapathaka was the "superior route" for it was rich in mines and had abundant 'diamond, rubies, pearls and gold.' Jewellery in southern India did not evolve in response to changing India, more than any other part of country
The treasure of the Mughal Emperors augmented the treasures by appropriating the wealth of the Indian states by military conquest The imperial treasury included items diverse as one thousand saddles of gold and drinking cups carved with rubies and emerald, over two thousand jewelled broaches for the hair and infinite numbers of diamond and pearl chains. The list was so exhausting that no one other than the keeper of the treasury knew its exact amount.
Jewels are linked with the past for the simple reason that these small objects of beauty concentrate on the culture of love and wealth. The power and pride of kingdoms was enshrined in jewels.

Asian Jewellery

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Beaded Indian Jewelry

Plains Indian beadwork is most famous, with its intricate peyote jewelry and bone hairpipe chokers, but there are beadwork traditions throughout North America, from the wampum jewelry of the eastern Indians to the shell and turquoise heishi necklaces of the southwestern Indians, from the floral beadwork of the northern Indians to the dentalium strands of the west coast Indians, and everything in between. Beads were a common trade item since ancient times, so it wasn't surprising to see quahog wampum from the east coast in Great Lakes beadwork or abalone shells from the west coast in Cherokee jewelry, even before the Europeans arrived and forced everyone onto reservations near each other. Here are some fine examples of different beaded Native American jewelry styles.

Metallic Indian Jewelry

Though silversmithing was an art most North American tribes imported in recent times from the Southwest Indian artists or from European-Americans, smiths from different tribes enriched the craft by combining it with their own people's symbols, designs, and jewelry traditions.

Navajo Jewelry

Having perfected an art believed to have been taught by the early Spanish explorers. Navajo Jewelers have combined traditional methods with modern methods and tools to produce jewelry that is unique to the Navajo people.

As early as the 1920's, the Navajo people had established a world wide reputation for their quality and craftsmanship. Now you may find that others try to copy the fine details and craftsmanship of a Navajo jeweler. The difference is readily apparent when pieces are placed side by side.

Navajo artisans begin a life-long learning process at the knees of tribal elders and family members, and as they perfect their craft, they also become the teachers of the next generation. Many of today's generation of artisans follow the traditional techniques; however, they may use a combination of old and modern tools to produce striking designs in gold and silver, as well as complex beadwork.

Navajo Jewelry

Having perfected an art believed to have been taught by the early Spanish explorers. Navajo Jewelers have combined traditional methods with modern methods and tools to produce jewelry that is unique to the Navajo people.

As early as the 1920's, the Navajo people had established a world wide reputation for their quality and craftsmanship. Now you may find that others try to copy the fine details and craftsmanship of a Navajo jeweler. The difference is readily apparent when pieces are placed side by side.

Navajo artisans begin a life-long learning process at the knees of tribal elders and family members, and as they perfect their craft, they also become the teachers of the next generation. Many of today's generation of artisans follow the traditional techniques; however, they may use a combination of old and modern tools to produce striking designs in gold and silver, as well as complex beadwork.

Southwest Indian Jewelry

The most impressive tradition of jewelry-making in North America belongs to the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo artisans who worked silver and semiprecious stones into distinctive inlay and overlay designs. Southwestern Indian jewelry art remains a strong and vibrant tradition today, and their artwork is prized both tribally and internationally. There is also a thriving trade among collectors for something called "old pawn" or "dead pawn" Indian jewelry. Basically this is antique jewelry which was pawned by Navajo and other Southwest Indians in such desperate financial straits that they were never able to reclaim them, or else taken away from Indian families by debt collectors, or, as is sometimes the case with pawned goods, dumped off there by thieves. Frankly, I'm very uncomfortable with dead pawn jewelry; though modern dealers haven't done anything wrong, most of the pawn jewelry was originally acquired through trickery, usury, thievery, extortion, or, in the very best scenario, acquired honestly from Indians suffering from such extreme poverty or alcohol addiction that they sold the only thing they had left of value, their mother's jewelry. Well, this is not jewelry in a positive spiritual state, and buying it will not honor or pass even one dollar along to the artist's descendants or any other native person. Why not buy some of the beautiful jewelry made by the many talented Southwest Indian artists still working today, instead? Here are some good places to buy fine Native American jewelry, guilt-free, and support the ongoing Indian jewelry-making tradition with your purchase.

Native American Jewelry Stores
On our main site we do our best to avoid slowing down our page loading with graphics, but this page is about art, so we'd really be remiss in not showing a few representative jewelry pictures. All photos are the property of their respective artists; please visit their sites to see their work in more depth. Be aware that all traditional Native American jewelry, including all the work on this page, is handmade, so it is going to be priced accordingly. If you are shopping for real Indian jewelry but find most of it too expensive, try looking at the earrings--those are often an affordable alternative to the larger pieces while still being authentic.

American Indian Jewelry

Jewelry styles were different in every American Indian tribe, but the differences were less marked than with other arts and crafts, because jewelry and the materials used for making it (beads, shells, copper and silver, ivory, amber, turquoise and other stones) were major trade items long before European arrival in America. After colonization, Native American jewelry-making traditions remained strong, incorporating, rather than being replaced by, new materials and techniques such as glass beads and more advanced metalworking techniques. There are two very general categories of Native American jewelry: metalwork, and beadwork. Before Europeans came native metalwork was fairly simple, consisting primarily of hammering and etching copper into pendants or earrings and fashioning copper and silver into beads. After Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo artists learned silversmithing from the Spanish in the 1800's, metal jewelry arts blossomed in the Southwest, and distinctive native jewelry like the squash blossom necklace, Hopi silver overlay bracelets, and Navajo turquoise inlay rings developed from the fusion of the new techniques with traditional designs. Native beadwork, on the other hand, was already extremely advanced in pre-Columbian times, including the fine grinding of turquoise, coral, and shell beads into smooth heishi necklaces, the delicate carving of individual wood and bone beads, the soaking and piecing of porcupine quills, and the intricate stitching of thousands of beads together. Porcupine quillwork has nearly died out (though some young artists are taking a renewed interest in it) but all of these other forms of beadwork are still going strong, though imported Czech seed beads have been the favored medium among many Indian artists for centuries now. You can see our Native American beadwork page for more information and pictures about different beading arts. If you are looking to buy jewelry that was actually made by Native Americans--either because it's important to you to have the real thing or because you want to support native people with your purchase--then here is our list of American Indian artists whose jewelry is available online. If you have a website of native jewelry to add to this list. We gladly advertise any individual native artist or native-owned art store here free of charge, provided that all jewelry is made by tribally recognized American Indian, Inuit, or First Nations artists. Thank you for your interest in Native American art!