From the Indian text called the Skanda Purana (4th c. CE), it is known that the buying of gold jewellery was considered to be an auspicious event.

It remains so to this day. In many ways, the fascination for gold exists everywhere in the world not just in India.

However in India, where tradition holds sway even as modern ideas flourish, it became an integral part of everyday life right up to modern times.

This could be due to the abundance of gold and precious stones and the prosperity that was enjoyed more than two thousand years ago.

All over the ancient world, before Iron and Bronze, there was Gold. Its brilliance and permanence made it the ideal offering to the Gods and adornment of Kings.

The walls of the temple of Brihadeeswarar, built in 1010 CE, is covered over with inscriptions, now barely discernible, describing the offerings made by the Chola kings after successful military campaigns.

Men of high rank wore as much jewellery as women. Actual specimens of this jewellery have not survived but sculptures made during this era have, as have pieces crafted in later periods. The designs have remained true to tradition down the centuries.

The Epic of the Anklet – Silappathikāram*– is one of the five Great Epics of ancient Tamil literature. Believed to have been written by Ilango Atigal in the dawn of the Common Era, it gives us a good idea of the prosperous lifestyle of the people of the later Sangham age.

The story of Silappatikāram starts in Puhar (Kaveripumpattinam in the map), a fabulous Chola city close to Thanjavur, built along the banks of the River Kaveri.

It was a bustling port city with imposing mansions that fronted the main road and in one such mansion lived Kannagi with her husband Kovalan.

Midway, the scene shifts to the Pandyan city of Madurai, famous as the Gem Bazaar of the world. Madurai was the capital of the poet King Nedunjhelian and the seat of the third Sangham.

The King in those days, though all-powerful and with divine sanction to rule, had advisers and a good king such as Nedunjhelian rarely, if ever, rejected the counsel of his advisors.

In Silappatikāram, Kovalan loses Kannagi’s wealth in an adulterous relationship with the beautiful Madhavi. The couple are forced to leave Puhar and start life again in Madurai.

A penitent Kovalan goes to the Jewellers Street in Madurai to sell Kannagi’s gold anklet.

The classical dance form of Bharatanatyam traces its origins back to this same period. The jewellery worn by modern dancers closely resemble the jewellery of those bygone ages. Brides too wear the same kind of jewellery.

Thus it is the bride and the dancer who carry the thin threads of the ancient tradition across the portal of Time and into the modern era.

Today, they are handmade in silver and then gold-plated. The stones are imitation. Exact replicas of the stunning vintage pieces are available too, along with designer ‘statement’ pieces for the modern woman. But like Kannagi’s gold anklet, these too are for the well-heeled.

Coming back to Silappatikāram, when Kovalan reaches the market with the anklet, he finds it agog with the news that the Queen’s gold anklet, identical in design to Kannagi’s, has been stolen.

Kovalan is lynched by the mob and nobody believes his story. He is dragged to Nedunjhelian’s court and in the heat of the moment Nedunjhelian forgets Dharma. He sentences Kovalan, without trial, to immediate death.

A distraught and furious Kannagi storms into the court and declares that she can prove that her anklet was different from the Queen’s. She picks hers up and breaks it into two.

As predicted by her, rubies tumble out and scatter all over the floor. The Queen corroborates Kannagi’s claim by saying that her missing anklet contained pearls.

Kannagi curses the King and condemns the city to burn to ashes. Nedunjhelian dies of shock and remorse.

The opening verses of Silappatikāram begins like this:

We shall compose a poem with songs
To explain these truths: Even kings if they break
The law, have their necks wrung by Dharma
Great men everywhere shall commend
This wife of everlasting fame and karma
Ever manifests itself and is fulfilled. We shall call the poem
Silappatikāram – The Epic of the Anklet,
Since the anklet brings these truths to light.

* Tamil: சிலப்பதிகாரம், also Cilappatikāram

Disclaimer: The images used are for illustrative purposes only.