Men's Jewelry from India

Jewelry, however, was not a feminine preserve. Men reveled in it as well, decorating their persons, their tools of work, whether they be weapons and shields or studded covers for the horns of animals. Each region had its stylistic variations or distinctions, and in the nuanced vocabulary of Sanskrit there were precise names for each piece identifying the design, the purpose and the significance. For pearl necklaces alone there was a plethora of names, the induchhanda for that with 1008 strings,the vijayachhanda for that with 504. So specific were the names that the original meaning of balika was an ear ornament "formed of three pearls comparable to the bakul flower".From top to toe, both men and women adorned themselves with a dazzling array of jewellery as we see from the sculptures and paintings of the Gupta period and onwards. The head was decorated with the chudamani or crest jewel, the mukut or crown; the forehead with teh tika that hung in the centre or with jewelled strips along the hairline. It was inauspicious to leave them naked, thus the profusion of jewelry for the ears - plugs, studs, hoops, graceful hanging jhumkas. The neck bore chokers, chains, collars, ropes of pearls and beads whereas armlets, bangles and bracelets covered upper and lower arms. Waists and hips, ample or sinous, carried belts and girdles made of gold or silver studded with stones; these could be rigid, flexible, braided or highly ornamented. Anklets graced the feet, almost always of silver, for to wear gold on the feet was to profane its deity, Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth. Only royalty considered themselves exempt from this observance.