Gemstones
Rajasthan excels in wide range of precious and semi-precious jewellery. Exquisite ornaments are made in Jaipur and Jodhpur using emerald, diamond, pearl, garnet, agate and lapiz lazulli. As oposed to the modern equipments used by European lapidaries, Jaipur workers use simple tools, inspite of which their dexterity and skill is remarkable.
A piece of very popular jewellery in Rajasthan is the navratna, a collection of nine gems set together in a single piece of jewellery, either a pendant or a ring. Pearls were considered extremely lucky and emerors even ate ground pearls as medicine. Traditional designs are still popular in modern India, though the colored glass or semi-precious stones have taken place of precious stones as in traditional Rajasthan.
Market and Specialised Centres of Jewellery in Rajasthan
Famous Meenakari Jewellery in Rajasthan
Jaipur
Centre for gold kundan work and also renowned for diamond and emrald cutting. Johari Bazar (jeweller’s market) offers the most varied collection of the region.
Nathdwara
Temple market in here is the best place to buy silver kundan and meenakari work.
Udaipur and Bikaner
A spillover of the kundan work can be purchased at Udaipur and exquisite pieces of gold and silver jewellery incorporated on lac for youngsters can be purchased at the Sunaron-ki-Suwad market in Bikaner.
Jaisalmer
Old silver jewellery can be bought at an affordable prices from the markets of jaisalmer.
Pratapgarh in Chittaurgarh
This district is famous for thewa jewellery, in which red, green or blue colored stones are beautifully crafted in the gold plated silver. Small boxes and jewel cases are also designed in this fashion.
Our jewellery chapter finishes here, we will start a serious of blogs about forts in Rajasthan from tommorrow. Do you know there are more than 1000 forts in Rajasthan, I know you wont believe it, but dont worry, we wont write about all, though we will write about many and many.
So friend stay tuned to find how the walls of forts served many kings and their kingdoms for centuries. These forts still serves as the most famous tourist attractions of rajasthan.
