Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c7.s5.21

c7.s5.21

The actual jewellery worn by the people included gold plaques both round and rectangular (Padaka) having ornamental paste inlay in white colour, plain gold armlets, conical ornaments for the ears, and a great variety of multi-stringged necklaces and girdles. A distinguishing feature of the Indus Valley jewellery was the use of beads of gold, silver and other semi-precious stones, manufactured in a number of shapes and strung together as necklaces or girdles. The material of beads consisted of carnelian (Hindi तामड़ी ), chalcedony (Karketana), agate (Lekhāśma or Galvarka; Hindi हकीक ), lapis lazuli (Rījāvarta), steatite, faience, shell, pottery, and jadeite (Masāra). Lapis lazuli was scarce in the Indus Valley but abundant in Sumer. The etched carnelian bead was better known in Mesopotamia and Persia and also recovered by Woolley in the Royal Tombs at Ur of the Chaldees, in the 3rd and 2nd millenium B. C. pointing to trade relations between the West and Harappa.