The rock of ages

Whether a royal or a peasant when it comes to gold both follow the same financial model its forged during celebrations and pawned during recessions So when India awoke to life and freedom maharajas awoke to empty coffersJewellery historian Dr Usha Balakrishnan tells us this at a Juhu coffee shop where were tracing Indian jewellery As curator of auction house Saffronarts upcoming conference Mapping a Legacy of Indian Jewels Balakrishnan has been looking into royal collections as well as temple treasuries Dressed in a rose quartzcoloured salwar kameez and a stately ring she says In 1947 when the Indian union was formed there were more than 625 princely states They lost a lot of the land and the revenues from that landJewellery has always been portable cash Even today in rural India people invest in gold as savings Several maharajas turned to their treasuries to support their large families and many did get liquidated at that time Having said that there are still a lot of royal families who are holding on to important pieces We see them at auctions in different parts of the world But its a complicated matter and they dont want to publicise or showcase itIn 2017 Balakrishnan convinced Radhika Raje Gaekwad the Maharani of Baroda to talk about her heirlooms at the biennial conference In its second edition it includes equally important names such as Indias greatest contemporary designer Viren Bhagat and John King from the Gemological Institute of America Structured Davos style every session has two speakers who complement each other For instance while historian Manu Pillai will wax eloquent on the treasury of Padmanabhaswamy Temple Balakrishnan will hold forth on the road that connected the western Malabar coast to the eastern Coromandel coast Im going to talk about Bijapur Hampi the Chola Empire in Thanjavur the Nayaka empire in Madurai and their temple treasuriesDr Usha Balakrishnan PicAshish RajeThe conference was initiated because not for nothing was India once sone ki chidiya Theres never been a conference with a focus on Indian jewellery anywhere in the world India is the greatest jewellery manufacturing nation of the world and it was my dream and desire to do a conference here and give an opportunity to Indian scholars to share their work At the same time she admits that we need countless conferences to understand Indias accessories legacyIts in our blood Adornment has been part of early man When he was a hunter and hunted a tiger he took the tiger claw and hung it around his neck because it was a symbol of his courage and valour There were amulets whether it was a shell or a bead elephant hair or a beetle wing Theres so much of symbolism that is attached In India gold is a symbol of Lakshmi a ritually pure metal There is no puja that is conducted without gold in some manner Even when a person dies a piece of gold is placed on the body because it is believed it is needed for the boatman as payment to take the soul from this world to the next So gold is very much a part of Indian DNAWith 150000 gold karigars scattered around the country it is also very much a part of our artistic legacy one enhanced by women At the conference scholar Deepthi Sasidharan is going to look at early photographs of women Because women and jewellery are inseparable What do photographs tell us about the jewellery they are wearing the design the fashion the manufacturing techniques How was it important to a particular woman whether she was a royal or a villagerWe bet our diamondstudded earlobes that it was the sameWhen October 11 ndash 12Where Four Seasons Hotel 1136 Dr E Moses RoadEntry Rs 15000Log on to jewelssaffronartcomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates